Hope is the Thing with Feathers
by LoverofAllThingsGeeky24
Summary: Hope Ashton is a nomad, on the run from SHIELD and Hydra for something she has no control over. She is captured, and a deal is made to keep her family safe. From then on, Hope is thrust into the duties and the life of an Avenger. She soon finds herself falling for a certain doctor, and is left with one question in her mind: was running and hiding all those years really worth it?
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: Just to give you readers some warning, this is my first fan fiction ever, let alone on this site. I sincerely hope you like it, however, and reviews are appreciated, as are private messages and constructive criticism. I'll try to post as often as I can. Read, and please, enjoy! This story takes place after the first Avengers but before Avengers: Age of Ultron, and is an AU. Please note: Pepper Potts is no longer with Tony Stark but is still working for him, Phil Coulson did not die, and Loki wasn't a villain in the first movie (more on this in the next chapter). Please don't hate me!_

 **Chapter 1**

Hope Ashton was strolling around the street, minding her own business and lost in her own little world when she felt it. It was a peculiar sensation, like pin pricks on the back of her neck. Her hair stood on end, and she almost paused in her walking, but carried on so as not to look suspicious to those around her. She'd experienced this sensation before, in another time, another place, another way. Her feelings for it, however, remained the same.

She hated being watched.

It was irritating, knowing someone was following your every move yet knowing you can't let the person watching you know that you know you're being watched. If they find out you know, they'll go from just watching you to going on the offensive, and Hope didn't have time for that right now.

She had her daughters to think of, after all. True, they weren't biologically related to her, and never mind the fact that most of them where only a few years younger than herself; Hope couldn't even begin think of them as anything like friends or sisters-they were her daughters, through and through.

And though Hope knew she needed to get back to them soon, she also knew that leading the people watching her to her daughters was a very foolish move.

The thought that they might already know where she lived plagued her, but Hope brushed it aside. She had security so tight in her home and so many safety measures put in place that whoever was watching her probably didn't know her daughters existed.

Hope had been so lost in her musings that she had completely forgetting her surroundings. More importantly, she'd forgotten she was in a crowded street, in a popular city.

The thing that made her remember where she was, however, was the fact that she had just bumped into someone.

To her further embarrassment, she had knocked into them so hard that they had actually fallen down. She studied his features quickly-curly, dark brown hair, brown eyes, a height that was much taller than her short 4' 11' stature, a slightly tanned skin tone-before a extending a hand to help him up.

Blushing furiously, she said, "I'm so sorry, sir. Are you alright?"

The man nodded, and Hope breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness. Sometimes I get so lost in my thinking that I fail to pay attention to what's going on around me."

Hope had originally intended to be gruff with him, a quick apology said before hurrying on her way, but that just wasn't her way, and besides, it would only hurt her to be rude. Maybe being kind to the person she'd bumped into would give her the distraction she needed. In any case, she had to try.

She needed to be sincere and heartfelt, chat with him for a moment or two before going on her merry way.

Thankfully, the man was kind, and he smiled, nodding at her excuse.

"That happens to me too, from time to time," he told her, and Hope returned the smile he had given her.

There was something...off about this, however; what she had been taught in the past told her that maybe this had been planned, and that the nice man whose back had been on the sidewalk only moments before was with the people who were watching her.

So Hope decided to be "subtly wary," a trick Selene had taught her. The key to it was to be wary and suspicious without anyone catching on to it-facial expressions, tone of voice, and questions and responses had to be just so, or else they would catch on.

Still smiling, she asked, "Where are you headed off to?"

Surprise and worry flashed simultaneously in his eyes, but other than that, nothing was off about him or his reaction.

"Just headed to a really good bookstore-slash-coffee shop I know. What about you?"

Hope could tell his response was a choreographed lie, but she said nothing of it.

Deciding to lie in turn, she replied, "I just got off work, but today I had planned to go to the grocery store...which is why I crashed into you. I was thinking so hard about the things I needed that..."

Here, she gestured to him and then the sidewalk, smiling sheepishly.

The man chuckled, and it was at that moment that Hope's phone rang. Though she was grateful for the distraction, she shot an apologetic towards the stranger before taking out her phone-by society's standards, a very old flip-phone-before answering.

"Hello?" she said, and there was a sigh of relief on the other line.

"We were worried when you didn't come home on time. Rose said she saw you being kidnapped, so...we feared the worst," one of her daughters, Haley, said.

Hope bite her lip. Rose's visions were rarely wrong.

Not sure how to reply with a stranger right next to her, she took in a breath and told Haley, "Sorry, but the subway was late."

To the average stranger, there would be nothing alarming about this statement. However, to her girls, this was a code. It meant that Hope was or suspected she was being followed and that the girls should take prepare to run.

She heard Haley let out a hiss.

"Okay. Selene's been blocking the phone call's transmission since the start, but now she's upped her game. What should we do?"

This was said so quietly that Hope almost had a hard time hearing her. The man whom she had bumped into earlier was shifting nervously, as if waiting for something to happen. Figuring that Rose's vision was about to come true and that she didn't have much time left, she told her daughter, "You know what to do."

There was a pause, then the line went dead. Hope nearly smiled-that was exactly what she wanted her to do. Now, Haley would alert the other girls, and they'd most likely have left the state by the time night fell. After quickly glancing up at the sky, she deduced that it was probably around six or so, which meant her girls would soon be safe. Maybe not her so much as them, but Hope's live meant little compared to the life of her daughters.

With this thought in mind, she gave herself courage and asked the man, "Where you planning on chloroforming me?"

The look of surprise and shock on the man's face was priceless.

Smiling with her eyes, she continued, "I've known that I was being watched for at least an hour. You're most likely a diversion set to catch me unawares before someone, or multiple people, come in and subdue me. Did I guess right?"

The man stilled, clearly unsure of how to proceed.

"You're just as good as the director told us you would be," a voice said from behind her, and Hope whirled.

The person whom the voice belonged to was a very beautiful woman, with short, fiery red hair that reminded her of Erica, though the woman's hair was much shorter. She wasn't sure of the woman's eye color, but she was taller than Hope. The tension in the woman's shoulders and the wary, guarded look in her eyes told Hope that she was a woman ready for anything.

Unsmiling, she shrugged and informed the new stranger, "I've been running for a long time."

The man gave a jolt at this, and she glanced over at him. Clearly whatever it was she had said had struck a nerve, or reminded him of something.

Suddenly it clicked in her mind. The red-headed woman with the mindset of Athena, and the man who looked like your average day guy but seemed nervous and jumpy.

They were part of the Avengers.

The woman was, obviously, the Black Widow, real name being Natasha Romanoff. Tales of what she had done in the battle, as well as in her spy life awed Hope and her girls, especially the fact that she was one woman among many men. The man who looked quite common was hard to pace-he obviously wasn't the arrogant billionaire Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, nor was he the man out of time, Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America.

That left only two people-Clint Barton, or Hawkeye, or Bruce Banner, alias being the Hulk.

However, given the way he had reacted to what she had told the spy, Hope deduced that the man was Bruce.

Hope was so caught up in her thoughts that, unbeknownst to her, the infamous spy, Natasha, known to many by her codename the Black Widow, had been studying the woman Director Fury had ordered them to track intently.

Though she didn't look like much-long, light brown hair, hazel eyes, lean and thin, with a very small height-she had been running from both SHIELD as well as Hydra for years. Such a feat should be impossible, yet here she was, after ten years of both agencies looking for her.

Her only mistake was making New York her home.

In any case, the way she held herself and the way her eyes were glancing everywhere, most likely looking for an escape, reminded Natasha very much of a SHIELD agent.

Through the comm, the Black Widow knew that her remaining teammates-minus Barton, who was on the roof should anything go wrong-were quickly approaching to their location. The spy knew that Hope didn't have much time left before she was captured, and for some unexplainable reason that pained her. Maybe it was because this woman reminded her so much of herself.

Hope finally realized that the Black Widow was studying her, sizing her up, so she bit her lip and shifted on her feet.

The tension-filled silence was cut through when Hope's phone rang. She let it ring a few times, glancing between Bruce and Natasha before she finally asked them, "Is it okay if I take this?" Both Avengers seemed surprised by this question before Natasha shrugged.

"Sure."

Hope inclined her head to the Black Widow in thanks before she answered her phone. Though the caller was still one of her girls, this time, rather than Haley, it was Athena.

"We're monitoring the situation now. Would you like us to stage a rescue?"

Hope shook her head before replying, "No. Leave me and go."

Again, the Avengers seemed surprised. The surprise, however, quickly turned into concern. Hope flinched, ashamed that she had revealed that the girls existed. But there were no code words to tell them to continue with the plan.

There was a pause before Athena sighed. Then, with great reluctance in her voice, said, "If you will it to be so, then I suppose we have no choice but to depart."

Hope flinched at the loudness of the sounds of uproar at Athena's decision. Her girls were angry-they wanted to rescue her. Gritting her teeth, Hope hissed, "Athena, would you put the phone on speaker phone for me, please?"

Another pause.

"How...how is exactly is that done, mother?"

Hope would've laughed had the situation not been so dire.

There was an impatient sigh in the background that was not Athena's before came the sound of the phone being exchanged to another person. There was a click of a button, and a pause.

Then another one of her daughters, Selene, said, "It's on speaker phone now. We can all hear you, so watch what you say."

This time, Hope couldn't stifle her laugh, and she snickered. Bruce and Natasha shot her a questioning look, but she ignored them.

"Am I correct to assume that you're blocking this call for being traced?"

There was a snort, then,

"You wound me, mother. Of course I'm stopping them from finding out where we are-I'm not five."

Rolling her eyes at her daughter's behavior, Hope said, "Leave the city. Protect each other. If these people mean no harm to me, as they seem to claim, then they should let me go once I've given them what they want. Once that happens, I'll find you girls again. This may be goodbye, but it won't be for forever."

There was silence on the other line, then the sound of laughter.

"Trust you to say something so poetic and beautiful. But yeah, this isn't goodbye. We will find you again."

The dial tone sounded then, and Hope stared at the phone for a long time afterwards before sighing and looking up at the heroes.

"So what now?

 _I apologize for any errors, spelling or other._


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers, though I wish I did. The only things I own are my OCs and my ideas.

To the two awesome people who reviewed, thank you. It means a lot to me.

 **Guest Reviewer: I'm not sure whether you'll consider them "cool" or not, but yes, Hope does have them.**

 **Sairahiniel:** **I'm glad you liked their exchange-I was worried I'd totally mess up his character, but I feel like I portrayed him rather well (so far, at least).**

And now, without further ado, on with chapter two!

 **Chapter 2**

Hope fidgeted in her seat under Director Fury's intense glare. She'd been glared at before, but the Director's stare was particularly unnerving.

Twelve hours ago, Hope had struck a deal with the Avengers-she would go with them, do whatever they ask of her, and in return, they wouldn't try to find her girls. It was a fair trade-her life, or at the very least, her freedom, for the lives and freedom of her daughters.

Not too bad of a deal, in Hope's mind at least.

Now, though, she was waiting to be questioned. She'd thought one of the agents would be questioning her, but to Hope's surprise, she'd been taken right to Director of SHIELD's office, two unfamiliar SHIELD agents escorting her.

And the term "waiting to be questioned" was as literal as it could get; she was sitting in a chair, just waiting for the Director to open his mouth and drill her.

She figured this was purposeful, a tactic of SHIELD-have her psyched up and extremely nervous, just so she could break under the pressure and spill every single one of her secrets.

Hope decided she wouldn't give them the satisfaction, so she bite her lip and glanced around the room, determined to distract herself from her discomfort.

Finally, after a long, tension-filled silence, the Director leaned forward in his chair and asked,

"Do you know why you're here, Miss Ashton?"

Hope blinked, surprised by the question, before she replied, "I suppose I do, Director."

When the Director didn't say anything in response, she realized he was waiting for her to elaborate. Blushing, she continued, "I assume it's because of my rather...unique abilities?"

She had intended for her words to come out as a statement, but it came out sounding more like a question.

The Director nodded.

Silence reigned until the Director asked, "And what all can you do?"

Hope hesitated, wary of what the Director really wanted from her. Though she figured it was to take advantage of her and her abilities, she wasn't sure to what extent. _Most likely, if he deems me to be safe and not a threat, he'll force me to be an agent, at the very least_ , Hope thought, before sighing.

"Many things. Healing and empathy were the only abilities I was born with, though," she told him, then instantly regretted it.

Hope shouldn't have told him that. She should've just kept that to herself.

The Director narrowed his eyes-er, eye-at her, and she flinched.

No, she definitely should _not_ have said that.

"Elaborate, please," he ordered, and she nodded meekly.

"When I was younger...Hydra got their hands on me and experimented on me, trying to turn me into a more offensive weapon that they could use. It was a long process, but eventually they manage to give me three additional abilities-I can generate forcefields, shoot energy bolts, and I have heightened senses compared to the average person," she told him, plucking at a loose thread on the hem of the sweater she had decided to wear today, purposely avoiding meeting the Director's gaze.

After a long moment with/of neither of them speaking, Hope gathered the courage to look up at the Director, wondering why he had no comment to her words.

When she peeked out at the intimidating man through her lashes, she noted the thinly veiled curiosity on his face.

Flinching despite herself, Hope quickly stood up from her chair/seat and practically ran from the Director. Walking over to a bookcase she hadn't noticed until now, she read each and every title.

" _To Kill a Mockingbird, Great Gatsby, Jane Eyre, A Tale of Two Cities_..." Hope murmured, finger trailing over their spines as she read them.

Turning to the Director, she told him, "No offense meant, Director, but these do not seem to be the types of books I pictured you'd read."

Though the Director's facial didn't change, she was almost certain he was amused by her statement.

"And what makes you say that?" he asked, and Hope shrugged.

"I don't really see you as a fan of the classics, sir," she said, plucking _A Tale of Two Cities_ from its shelf and skimming through the book.

"A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other," she quoted, recalling that particular moment in the book.

"Well, you're right. Those are Dr. Banner's books," the Director told her after a long moment's pause.

Hope's brow quirked up at that.

"And why exactly do you have the Doctor's books in your office, sir?" she asked, carefully putting the novel back in its place.

The Director merely glared at her, all amusement gone.

Hope bite her lip, realizing that she had probably pushed things too far with her question.

If he had done his homework on her, he would know that she had been a former member of Hydra. Unwillingly, of course, but Hydra was SHIELD's enemy-unwillingly or not, he couldn't possibly trust her.

She had to build the trust up between them, and asking stupid, pointless questions just to sate her curiosity _wasn't_ helping.

The Director regarded her for a moment, and then, to Hope's surprise, said, "You're dismissed."

She stared at him as if he were crazy.

Which, based on his dismissal, she assumed he was. He had, after all, only been talking to her for fifteen minutes.

How was that enough time for a person to gain an opinion on someone?

Granted, he was the Director of an agency full of spies, and probably a spy, or at the very least an ex-spy, himself; he could very well have used this to gauge whether or not Hope could be trusted.

After a long stare-down between herself and the Director, Hope gave in to his orders and nodded stiffly before leaving the room.

Two days earlier, Hope had been given a room in the Helicarrier while she waited for Director Fury to make his mind up about her. And now, here Natasha was, delivering news that greatly astonished Hope.

The empath looked up at the master spy, eyes wide in shock, thinking she hadn't heard right.

"I-I beg your pardon?" she stammered, moving away from Natasha, almost tripping over several things in her struggle to get away from the Russian.

Natasha rolled her eyes, clucking her tongue in good natured irritation before repeating, "The Director has decided to make you an Avenger."

Hope was at a loss for words.

"But...I'm an ex-Hydra member! How could he trust me?"

Natasha quirked an eyebrow.

"Are you saying he shouldn't?" she asked, expression dark, hand subtly hovering over a gun at her hip.

Hope quickly backtracked, shaking her head.

"Er, n-no, of course not. I'm merely implying that I've only been here for a few days or so. That doesn't give him a lot of time to evaluate me, let alone know if he can trust me."

The assassin nodded at Hope's words, and the hand quickly went away from the gun before going through Natasha's short hair.

Hope watched the movement with a tilt of the head until Natasha's hand returned to her side.

All was silent.

Then, hesitantly, she began, "Miss Romanoff?"

Natasha blinked, startled at being addressed as such, before narrowing her eyes at her.

"What?" she snapped, irritated at the "Miss Romanoff," and Hope flinched at her tone.

"Um, I was wondering...seeing as I guess I can't exactly say _no_ to the director of an agency that could easily send someone to kill me... I guess what I'm trying to ask is...what exactly does one do as an Avenger?"

It all came out in a rush, as Hope didn't want to bother the spy anymore than she already had, not to mention she didn't want to take anymore of the admirable woman's time.

To her surprise, Natasha smiled at her.

"Hope, what did you do for your girls? The ones you took off the street?" she asked, and Hope's mouth went dry.

She already knew the story behind it-damned master spy had forced it out of her-so why was she asking?

Finally finding her voice after a moment, Hope said, "I take them in. I give them a place to sleep, food to eat, the love that's been denied to them for most of their life, anything they could ever possibly want."

The reality hit her then. She may never see her girls again. Obviously she couldn't try to find them-that would just put everyone on their tail-but at the same time, neither could they, for the very same reason. In all likelihood, that phone call she had had in the streets of New York was probably the closest thing she'd ever have to seeing them again.

So as Hope said these words to Natasha, her emotions were released. All the things she'd done with her girls, the things she'd experienced with them, and the unconditional love she felt for her daughters came rushing back to her.

At first it was just one, single, solitary tear, then another and another fell, and soon enough she was crying, crying the heart wrenching sobs of a person losing someone important to them.

 _The loss of the girls Hope thought as her daughters hit her hard_ , Natasha mused as she watched the newest Avengers cry. Yet again, she felt that foreign feeling, that stir of sympathy for Hope. It tugged at her heart until she could no longer bear it.

Then, the Black Widow did something utterly out of character for the assassin-she reached over and hugged the sobbing woman, letting her head rest on her shoulders as Hope cried.

When her sobs finally ceased, the two women pulled away from each other.

"What I was trying to get at by asking you that question was that, essentially, you do for the people what you did for your girls. You protect the people and do everything in your power to keep them safe," the spy told her.

They shared a smile before taking separate paths, walking away like nothing had ever happened.

 _When Hope was reading the book titles off, I wasn't sure whether to italicize them or not, so I just put them in italics and hoped for the best. I'm sorry if it's not correct._


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, unfortunately.

Okay. I lied. The fast-paced aspect of the last chapter will not be explained in this one. It'll be explained in the chapter after this, or in Chapter 5. Sorry for being evil. Also, this chapter's pretty short-but the next one should be longer, so look forward to that.

 **Sairahniel: Thanks for reviewing again. If it weren't for you, I'm not sure I'd want to continue with this story. I was a little sad about Hope lamenting the loss of her girls too, but I figured it needed to be done. Also, Natasha'll be in for a surprise soon-you'll see what I mean when I get there. Yeah, Fury sends shivers down my spine as well, but he'll nicer-or as nice as he can be-as the story goes on.**

And now, on to another chapter! Yay!

 **Chapter 3**

Hope was nervous. She stared at her shoes and messed with her hair, doing anything she possibly could to avoid looking up.

Because standing only about ten feet away were the Avengers.

To make matters even worse, they were all staring at her expectantly, as if waiting for her to do something amazing and spectacular. She didn't have the courage to tell them that she wasn't as special as they seemed to think she was.

But the worst part, by far, was the fact that they were in the training room. Out of all of the places Director Fury could pick for her to meet the Avengers, it had to be here, where SHIELD agents and the like trained and fought.

Maybe it was because the Director wanted to see her fighting skills. Either that, or maybe he wanted to get his revenge for her assumptions the other day and embarrass her in front of her new teammates.

Biting her lip, Hope peeked through the curtain she had made of her hair and glanced over at Natasha, the only Avenger she trusted, for encouragement.

 _Of course you trust the master spy and assassin the most_ , Hope thought, _since you've always seemed to have a death wish._

However, when she glanced over at Natasha, she realized that not only was the spy already looking at her, but there was also a smirk on her face as well. The mischievous glint in Natasha's eyes didn't really encourage Hope too much, either.

Hope brushed the hair out of her eyes and shot Natasha a look, but the Russian just rolled her eyes in response. The two had a stare-down for a long moment, confusing the rest of the Avengers, before Natasha made a scoffing noise and turned away. Hope was disappointed, but then shrugged it off.

They'd be friends eventually, if they weren't already; Hope would see to that.

Turning her attention to the Avengers, she noticed with mild surprise that not all of the Avengers where there. Both Thor and Tony were gone, and while Bruce _was_ here, he was on the sidelines, sitting on a bench nearby and reading a book.

Then again, making him angry wasn't the best thing for anyone. No one wanted to release the Hulk, and based on the footage she had seen of the Battle of New York, she couldn't blame them.

With a sigh, Hope decided to get the introductions over with, and started with something she had been wondering ever since she had been first escorted to the training room.

"You seem to be missing a few teammates," she remarked casually, glancing around the room again. Natasha let out a chuckle at this.

"Thor's in Asgard right now, and Tony is...well, he's somewhere," Natasha replied, and she hummed in agreement.

"Billionaires tend to only care about themselves, their money, and their business. At least, in my experience they do," Hope remarked, and Steve snorted.

"Oh, you have no idea," he said dryly, thoughts briefly going to Tony Stark.

Hope laughed, though she was wondering what Tony would think of what his teammate was saying about him. Then again, Steve and Tony weren't exactly the best of friends, so maybe they would expect insults and would be surprised if they didn't receive them from each other.

Looking around the room, Hope observed what looked like an obstacle course had been set up all around the room. And right in the middle of the room was a boxing ring. Suddenly, Hope's nerves hit her again, and she gulped.

Hope decided that now was as good as ever to voice the question that had crept into her mind at the state of the training room, though she was pretty certain of what the answer would be.

"So what's on the agenda for today?"

Clint and Steve looked surprised at her question, but Natasha took it all in stride.

Grinning in a way that made Hope want to run away screaming bloody murder, Natasha said, "We're doing some basic training exercises, since we're not sure how fit you are and what all you can do."

Hope nodded, accepting this answer before yet another question came to mind.

"And what will you all be doing whilst my lungs explode?"

At this, Clint, Steve, and Natasha all laughed at Hope's attempt at a joke before quickly composing themselves. Bruce, alerted by the laughter, looked up from his book. He caught sight of Hope and smiled at her briefly before going back to his reading. The smile caught her off guard, for she hadn't thought that he would be so willing to be friendly with her when he didn't really know her.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, she tilted her head in the direction of the boxing ring.

"Though I know you'd prefer that we start with the obstacle course, I would much rather prove to you that I'm a worthy teammate and can fight," Hope stated.

Natasha studied her for a moment, an argument in her eyes. she conceded, albeit reluctantly, with a nod.

"Pick your opponent," the spy ordered, and Hope inclined her head before stepping back to size the Avengers up.

Sparring with Natasha was a death wish, since Hope didn't trust her skills enough to fight the Black Widow herself. On that note, since she really wanted to prove herself, fighting with Clint was out, too. Not that he wasn't an impressive fighter, because he probably was-she just needed more of a challenge than the archer would give her.

So that left her with Steve. She just hoped he wouldn't be a gentleman and go easy on her-it would only serve to ruin everything she was trying to accomplish.

"I would like to spar with the Captain. If he doesn't mind, of course," Hope said finally.

Both Clint and Steve seemed taken aback by this, Steve more so than Clint. Unsurprisingly, the only reaction from Natasha was that of nonchalance. In fact, the spy merely nodded, looking as if she had expected Hope to suggest Steve as her partner.

Then, before Steve could so much as utter a word of protest, Hope hurried past him and stepped into the ring.

From across the room, she couldn't really hear them or see their facial expressions, but she could sense that Steve didn't want to go and spar with her.

She wasn't sure what it was that made her aware of Steve's obvious reluctance to sparring with his newest teammate. Whether it was because of her powers of empathy or the fact that Natasha was physically pushing Steve towards the ring was anyone's guess.

With a mental shrug, Hope supposed that it was a combination of both-her powers gave her the suggestion and the spy shoving Steve confirmed it.

After shooting Natasha a spiteful look, a look which made the spy roll her eyes, Steve walked over to the boxing ring and stepped inside. He eyed Hope as if trying to figure out how to proceed.

"I think we should set some rules for this match. I'm not allowed to use most of my powers; the only one I am allowed to use is my shielding, and I can only use that for three seconds at a time and must wait at least forty seconds before I use it again. Does this sound fair to you?"

Steve thought over her words for a moment before nodding. Then, he frowned.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Hope, pretty certain she knew what he was going to say, quickly interjected before he could speak.

Smiling, Hope told him, "I don't require any handicaps from you, Captain America. I may not look it, but I'm a very good fighter."

Though he looked doubtful, he nodded anyway and took his position, Hope copying him with a smirk plastered on her face.

He wouldn't think her much of a fighter, so he'd go easy on her. That would be his downfall. She'd catch him off guard with well-placed blows that he wouldn't expect, dodging punches and kicks thrown at her once he'd realize she really was as good as she claimed.

Normally such dishonorable tactics were beneath her, but she needed to impress the others, so the twinge of guilt she would feel when she won would be worth it in the end.

"On the count of three?" Hope questioned, tilting her head as she waited for an answer.

"On three," Steve agreed with a grin, and Hope inclined her head in acceptance.

"One..."

"...two..."

"...three!"

Without a moment's pause, the two lunged for each other.

And so the fight began.

 _I was going to include Tony and Thor in this one, but I'm still preparing myself to write in their personalities. But trust me, they'll be here in the next chapter (unless I'm lying again. You can never tell with me. *cue evil laugh*)_


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, sadly.

 **Sairahiniel: Thank goodness someone understand the struggle of writing with those two Avengers-I'm insanely glad it's not just me. I liked them in the ring, too. Sorry about not writing how the fight went in the last chapter-you'll see why once you get five seconds in to this one. Thanks. Your love for this story makes me happy. Really, really happy.**

A warning: there will be a flashback in this chapter. Everything that is done, said, etc. within the flashback will be in italics.

Also, if I don't get at least two reviews (this will be the only time I do this, FYI) by two different people after about four weeks, then I will stop writing this story. I'm just not really sure if you guys really love it or not. And while I love the reviews and overall awesomeness of Sairahiniel, I need to have one other besides yours, or...

 **Chapter 4**

"That girl managed to beat Capsicle? Why wasn't I there to see that?" Tony exclaimed, a slight whine to his voice.

Everyone either ignored him or rolled their eyes at the overzealous Avenger. SHIELD and its agents had gotten very used to Tony and his antics, so most of the time they pretended that he wasn't there. If you acknowledged him, rumors claimed, you would regret it, as he'd just become more annoying.

Meanwhile, Tony, undaunted by everyone's lack of interest in what he was saying, continued, "But Cap's a super soldier! How did she manage to win against him? Someone needs to explain that to me."

Nat, Clint, Steve, and Bruce (for Thor was still in Asgard) all merely rolled their eyes, deciding it was best for all of them to refrain from commenting.

Tony overdramatically sighed, then after glancing around the room, spotted Bruce. His eyes widened and a grin formed on his face before he began walking towards him.

Bruce groaned, burying his face into his hands. Steve patted his fellow Avenger on the back, a sympathetic smile on his face. _Great, Tony was going to bother him now,_ Bruce thought miserably.

By then, however. Tony had reached them. Clapping Bruce on the back, he said, "So, my science bro, how did this "Hope" person manage to beat our Cap?"

Bruce shook his head, his lips thinning. He was _so_ not getting involved in this, especially with Steve in earshot.

Truth be told, Bruce wasn't really sure how Hope had managed to beat Steve. The two had seemed to be pretty evenly matched at the start, but somehow she had managed to best Steve towards the end of the fight.

"I utilized a fairly common strategy in my match with Steve-utterly exhaust your opponent before striking the finishing blow. "

All of the Avengers jumped (minus Natasha) jumped, startled. They whirled, only to find a grinning Hope behind them. Natasha and Hope shared a knowing look before the two burst out laughing, surprising and confusing everyone around them.

The Black Widow _never_ laughed, especially if she was surrounded by other agents.

Tony, with a look of absolute horror on his face, asked, his tone as serious as he could be, "You can laugh?"

Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Of course I can laugh, Tony. Despite what you may think, I am human."

Natasha and Hope exchanged another look before the spy mouthed " _men_ " to her friend before rolling her eyes again. Hope giggled before clamping a hand over her mouth, as though she thought laughing wasn't allowed. The giggle attracted Tony's attention, unfortunately, and his gaze turned to her, a charming smile plastered on his face.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Hope smiled and said as innocently as possible, "So putting your name on your tower, that really worked out well for you didn't it?"

The only reason why the Chitauri had recognized Tony's tower was because he had put "Stark" in big, white letters on it for all to see.

Clearly, it was a jab at Tony. And judging by the slack look in Tony's eyes, it was working.

To further irritate him, she continued, "So how is construction coming along? I would imagine not so well, since most of the building was demolished and it's only been a few , right, I forgot. They pulled out, didn't they?"

The construction company that had been working on his tower had pulled out because Tony had slept with the contractor's wife.

How Hope had heard about this was beyond Tony, since only the three parties involved knew about it.

At Tony's expression she elaborated.

"Halley talks. I listen"

Halley was the name of the contractor's now ex-wife.

After a moment, she tilted her head and added, "For a wildly acclaimed man-whore, she admitted you're not very good. She told me, and I quote, 'he really needs to work on his technique a bit more.' "

Silence.

Tony, mouth agape, stared at her, completely at a loss for words. Natasha and Clint were silently laughing, with Natasha giving Hope a thumbs-up in praise. Bruce and Steve were red-faced, both out of embarrassment and because they were both laughing so hard.

Finally, after a long moment filled with silence, Tony stepped forward. For a few seconds they had a staredown, both scowling, before the two began grinning. With a chuckle, Tony wrapped Hope up into a hug, to everyone's astonishment.

"Had I known it was _the_ Hope Ashton I would've come here more prepared. Nice insulting by the way. Never would've expected that from a girl like you," Tony said, and Hope laughed.

"I suppose you could say I learned from the best," she replied with a shrug.

"What just happened?" Steve questioned, and Tony and Hope turned to look at him. Everyone else shared the same shocked expression.

Tony wrapped an arm around Hope's shoulders,opening his mouth to speak, but Hope rolled her eyes and shoved his arm off of her. Tony's mouth closed and he turned to pout at her, and she snickered in reply.

"Hope is an ex-personal assistant of mine," Tony explained. Hope nodded, though the faces of her teammates and their feelings where a statement to how doubtful they all were with Tony's words.

When they all looked still looked very doubtful, even after she gave them time for the information to sink in, Hope took pity on her baffled teammates and elaborated.

"I quit because he become far too annoying for my taste. How Pepper managed to stay at that job without losing her sanity is beyond me."

Natasha nodded, concurring with her. The other Avengers nodded, too; they could believe that.

"I truly admire that woman," the spy said, and Hope hummed in agreement.

"May God have mercy on her soul," Hope said, and Natasha smacked her on the arm.

When Hope turned to glare at her, Natasha scolded her, "Don't talk about Pepper as if she were dead."

Hope held up her hands in surrender before shaking her head and walking away. When Natasha asked her why she was leaving, Hope turned around and replied, "The Director assigned an agent to train with me more."

"I feel pity for that poor soul," Natasha said with a shake of the head, and Hope smiled.

"I'll try my very best to go easy on them. The Director may just have his agent back in one piece," Hope assured the spy before leaving.

The Avengers stared at the place where she had stood before turning to themselves.

"Why didn't you tell us you knew Hope before?" Natasha demanded, smacking Tony on the head while glaring at him.

"Well, maybe because I didn't know it was her. I seem to remember attending a meeting for my company while you guys where being bored to death by Patchy the Pirate," Tony responded.

"Wouldn't attending a meeting be just as boring?" Clint asked after a moment, and Tony's face grew thoughtful before he shrugged.

"Since I was the one commanding the meeting and giving orders, no, not really," he answered, and Clint let out a huff of annoyance.

No one spoke until Tony, with a genuinely interest expression on his face, asked, "So what did happen at the SHIELD meeting?"

Natasha bit her lip in thought before shrugging.

"Oh, you know. The usual."

 _Flashback_

" _Sir, why was this meeting called?" Clint asked, speaking for himself as well as his teammates who all shared the same confused look as him. They were all meeting in the Director's office, as per ordered, but they hadn't been told why they were there yet._

 _The Director looked up from a file he'd been looming over to look up at the assembled Avengers. The only one who wasn't there was Tony. Thor was still in New York after the alien invasion, visiting Jane before he and Loki left to Asgard._

 _He briefly scrutinized them, then, giving a mental shrug. he rummaged through an already opened drawer in his desk, and pulled out six files. He slid them over to the Avengers and let them skim through what it contained for a few minutes before clearing his throat to attract their attention. He waited until they were all looking up at him before turning to a big screen behind him. Up on the screen appeared a fairly blurred close-up photo of a petite woman with long, brown hair._

 _Her face was obscured from view, and to the two trained spies in the room it was a deliberate attempt to avoid being identified by the camera. The time stamp claimed it was eight o'clock on the twentieth of December of this year._

" _This," the Director began, eye flicking over them all before going back to the picture, "is Salina Abel. She was born in France, as the name implies. When she was a teenager, her father took her to Russia for reasons unknown. Though she's been on SHIELD's radar for a while now, this is the first and only proof we have that she is here, on our soil."_

 _Silence descended upon the room while the Director waited for them to react. Finally, Steve asked, "I have two questions."_

 _When the Director gave a nod to tell the super soldier he could continue, Steve asked, "One, why is she on SHIELD's radar? And two, why do you want us to know about her?"  
The Director considered the questions for a moment before he answered them._

" _She's on our radar for several reasons. The two main reasons, however, are because she's a former member of Hydra," Steve's fist clenched at this, "and she had rather...unique abilities that SHIELD thinks would be useful. As for why I want you to know about her, well..."_

 _Here, the Director smirked._

" _You guys are going to go find her. We believe she's here, in New York. New York City, to be_

 _precise."_

 _All the Avengers exchanged looks before they nodded, standing up. However, before they could leave, the Director said, "Wait. There's one more thing."_

 _They all turned back to the Director, pausing in their movement towards the door to hear what he had to say._

" _Salina Abel renamed herself when she arrived here. She now goes by the name of Hope Ashton."_

I apologize for being so evil and mean to Tony. I don't actually hate him, believe it or not; in fact he's one of my favorite Avengers. Things will get better for him, I promise. That is, if I get two reviews. So just keep that in mind, you amazing readers. No reviews, no new chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel, though I really, really wish I did.

It's come to my attention that Marvel has replaced, or is going to replace, Bruce Banner as the Hulk. I love Marvel, don't get me wrong, but Marvel can go screw itself. Bruce Banner IS the Hulk, no matter what Marvel says. I'm continuing with this story, don't worry; I'm just telling you that I'm not too happy with Marvel right now, and that my anger at them might show up in my work.

Also, I'd like to thank you for those who reviewed. I write and publish because of you guys.

 **Chapter 5**

The Director had given her a day off, a rare thing and something she was going to take advantage of. Since she was in desperate need of a good book to read, and because, all of her books had been left at her apartment, she decided to go to a bookstore. She had looked up the closest bookstore, disguised herself with sunglasses, a hoodie, and a hat, and had walked to the bookstore.

And now, here she was, a tentative hand on the door handle to the store. She feared that Hydra knew where she was, so entering such a public made her wary. Hope took a deep breath and steeled herself. Then, rather than letting herself be a pessimist, she decided to think of good things instead in an attempt to calm herself down.

For starters, she loved the smell of books, especially older ones. The smell of paper and ink filled her with nostalgia and sent a shiver up her spine. Not to mention the feel of paper against Hope's fingers as she flipped the pages. Nothing could really compare.

Unfortunately, when Hope stepped into the bookstore, the strong sense of coffee filled her nostrils instead of the smell of books she loved so much. She nearly gagged at the scent-she'd never been the biggest fan of coffee-but managed to keep herself composed. With a mental shrug, Hope continued into the store, intent on finding a good book, only to stop short.

There, sitting not too far from the door, was Bruce. A cup of coffee sat in front of him, steam wafting from it, with a book clutched in his hands. Though he was facing her, he didn't see her, so intent on the book as he was. Hope took the time to study his face. His eyes were so concentrated on his book that knew he was enjoying it.

She didn't need to be an empath to know that. It was as clear as the nose on his face that he liked whatever it was he was reading .

Her thoughts drifted back to the words he had said to her at their first meeting.

 _Just headed to a really good bookstore-slash-coffee shop I know._

So it hadn't really been a lie, after all. Some parts of of it had been, of course, but for the most part it was true.

Deciding to get her book and deal with him later, she headed off to her favorite genre of books: fantasy. It was nice to read about the lives of people who had a life odder than her , they didn't really exist, but it was a pleasant thought anyway. She bought her book, and paused again at the doorway, deliberating.

She could either continue as if she hadn't noticed he was there, or go and greet him. She stood there for a long moment, wondering about what she should do, when Bruce unknowingly made the decision for her. He looked up from his book, eyes widening in surprise once he realized she was there. Hope paused before she smiled and waved at him. Knowing that leaving would be rude, she walked over to his table.

"Hello," she said, and he returned her greeting with a "hello" of his own.

Gesturing to his book, she asked, "May I ask what you're reading?"

With a smile he told her, " _Lord of the Rings_. I've heard it's a good book, but I haven't had a chance to read it."

 _While I was on the run._ Hope knew that was what he really meant, but here, in this crowded bookstore, he couldn't exactly say that. But she understood his meaning, and she smiled sympathetically at him.

"It gets easier," she assured him, and though he nodded, she could tell he didn't really believe her.

Hope decided, for both of their sakes, to change the subject then. Holding up her book, she said, "Well, great minds think alike."

In her hands was her own copy of _Lord of the Rings._

The two shared a grin before Hope walked over to order something. Hot chocolate, since she wasn't much of a fan of coffee.

Arriving back at Bruce's table, she gestured to the empty seat across from him and asked, "May I sit here?"

He nodded, and she slide into the seat. It was hard, yet comfy at the same time.

"Hot chocolate?" he questioned, amusement shining in his eyes, and Hope made a face.

"Coffee's too bitter for my taste. I figure hot chocolate is better to order, since I end up murdering the coffee with sugars and creams anyway," she replied, and he chuckled.

Jerking her head in the direction of his book, she wondered aloud how far in the book he was. he told her he was halfway through, and from there, a conversation started. They talked about anything and everything-books that they'd read, how much they wanted to strangle Tony, whether or not they likes being an Avenger...Things like that.

Neither party realized how long they had stayed until the barista told them that it was eight and they were closing up. Sunday, the barista claimed, was the day when they closed early. Both heroes had nodded and left, still chatting about thing.

They didn't really care about the fact that they had just spent about six hours of their life just talking in a bookstore-slash-coffee shop.

To them, it hadn't felt as long.

They walked and talked about nothing in particular for another thirty minutes or so before saying goodbye to each other.

As they said their goodbyes, Hope smiled, pleased with the fact that she'd made yet another friend.

Hope loathed the word "hate." You could dislike someone, even greatly dislike someone, but _hate_ seemed outside of the realm of possibility for her.

But now, staring at the agent in front of her, she was beginning to doubt her beliefs on the subject. Hope nearly snorted-only a week or so into her training, and she already hated her trainer.

Her life in SHIELD was starting oh so splendidly.

The agent was younger than her, in his twenties or so, with blonde hair and blue eyes, with the personality of Satan.

So maybe saying that he resembled the Devil was a bit of a stretch, but considering everything he'd made her do, there wasn't much doubt in her mind that he was an evil, evil man. He had been nice when they'd first started, going easy and helping her out, but now, the tasks he forced her to do where impossible and he no longer lent a hand to her. Though she supposed it was to help her gain more skills, that didn't make her hate him any less.

They were sitting in chairs across from each other in the training room, both taking a break from him yelling at her to run harder and faster through the course he had set up the other day. She'd only been practicing with it for a day and he had already expected her to master the course. Hence, the personality of Satan.

The agent, Agent Rhmer, if memory served, seemed unfazed by the fact that Hope was currently glaring daggers at him. A long silence hung in the air, only broken when Rhmer asked, "What were you doing a week from today?"

Hope blinked, staring at her trainer in confusion. Why would he care about what she had been formerly doing in her free time?

Slowly, she replied, "Er, I was reading with Dr. Banner."

Thoughts of her day with Bruce in the coffee-slash-bookstore fluttered through her mind. She thought that they had a lot in common. They both loved books, both were rather intelligent (meaning she could listen to Bruce and Tony talk science and have a vague understanding of what they were saying), and both thought themselves to be monsters. Bruce with his alter-ego, the Hulk, and Hope, with her past as an unwilling Hydra agent.

Thinking about that particular part of her past made her flinch.

Hydra wasn't something she liked to talk about. It was a part of herself that she despised and regretted with every part of her being. She'd been an unwilling pawn when she'd entered, a haunted woman when she left. The things she'd seen and done there brought rounds of shame through her, but again, she didn't have a choice. Not only had her father ordered her to participate, but he had also threatened her with the deaths of innocent people. So Hope, with all of those lives depending on her, hadn't dared to refuse any of her father's orders.

The agent nodded after a moment, accepting her words, though something told Hope that his response was fake. However, since she didn't have any proof besides a simple feeling that she had, she didn't doubt Rhmer's sincerity.

Not yet, at least.

"Is that all you did?" the agent persisted, and Hope's jaw clenched. There was a faint tone of accusation in his voice, putting her nerves on edge. Maybe she should have listened to what her instincts had told her.

Deciding that not answering him was best, she fired back with a question of her own.

"Why is this important to you, Agent Rhmer? My personal life and what I choose to do in my free time shouldn't affect what we do here in training."

He regarded her for a long, hard moment before he leaned forward, his face mere inches from her own.

Then, in a blink of an eye, he kissed her. It was a short, chaste kiss, but a kiss nonetheless

Hope stumbled back in surprise, and as she scrambled to get away from him, a predatory grin spread over Rhmer's face. Amusement shone in his eyes, and for a brief moment, anger flared inside of Hope until she forced herself to calm down.

Nothing good would come from her being angry.

"Why did you do that?" she demanded, and he barked out a laugh.

"Just wanted to test your reflexes, is all," he replied.

Hope, disgusted, swiftly stood up and stalked out of the room, Rhmer's booming laughter following after her.

If she hadn't hated him before, she definitely hated him now.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or the Avengers, but Hope Ashton is mine.**

Thank you, reviewers, from the bottom of my heart. You guys make me smile, cry happy tears, and make me want to continue writing this story. I hope I don't let you down.

Also, I only just recently realized that I have a Haley and a Halley in my story. Haley is one of Hope's girls while _Halley_ is someone who won't ever be mentioned again _._ Sorry for the confusion.

So a guest reviewer posed a very valid question that I'm surprised no one's asked me yet. Okay, so I knew I was going to have my OC called Hope the minute the idea floated into my mind, but I couldn't think of a title for the story. So I Googled "quotes with the word hope," just to give me some ideas. Goodreads helpfully offered the quote "hope is the thing with feathers," something by the poet Emily Dickinson, and it's like a lightbulb went off in my head. That was to be the title of my first ever fan fiction. But at the same time, I was thinking, "but feathers have nothing to do with my character, nor the story." feathers. Then I figured it out. Hope is a very special person, with heavy, heavy baggage and a past she wishes to forget. She no longer wanted to be held down by what happened before she joined the Avengers. Though she can't forgive what happened to her, or could she forget, she wanted to just leave it in the past."Hope is the thing with feathers" was going to be my way of expressing that she wants to get away (fly away) from her past and step forward into her future.

Wow. That was a very long ramble, and for that I apologize. But I just felt like it needed to said, so people won't be confused as to why I have the word "feathers" in my title when she is so clearly not Maximum Ride. I promise not to ramble so much in the future, though.

Anyway, I hope (no pun intended) that you enjoy chapter six!

 **Chapter 6**

"Director, I would like to make a request," Hope stated, and all eyes in the room swerved towards her. Fortunately, it was just the Avengers and the Director, so she didn't bother to focus on any of them. Bruce, thankfully, was gone, as was Tony (another meeting of his he had to go to). She figured, since Bruce and her were friends, that he wouldn't react very well to the news that someone had kissed her forcibly.

Thor was also still gone, so a meeting with the god wouldn't be happening anytime soon for Hope. Though she was a little nervous with meeting a full-blooded Asgardian (next in line to rule, no less), living with Athena had taught her something about them. The fact that, as long as you can prove you are a worthy and brave warrior to them, they were rather kind, friendly and good-natured people with humour to spare.

With a little optimism, Hope figured that a meeting with the god wouldn't be too bad, if she managed to prove herself to him. As Athena had once told her, Thor was a good person with a big heart. So she thought that, once she meeti him, they would click immediately. Or at the very least, he wouldn't hate her.

For now, though, her attention was all on the Director.

Fury's attention, coincidentally, was on all Hope. She had come in, interrupting the meeting he had been having with his Avengers. Her eyes were filled with rage, and her hands were clenched tightly into fists at her sides.

The Director, after regarding her for a long moment, made a gesture that she should proceed. Hope closed her eyes and bit her lip, thinking about how she should proceed. If she messed up, he may ignore her request, and then she'd be stuck with Rhmer. She nearly shuddered at the thought, but forced herself not to.

If she could help it, she'd keep Rhmer kissing her out of it all. It was best for everyone, especially Rhmer. Hope may not like him right now, for obvious reasons, but she didn't think he deserved whatever terror her friend the Black Widow could inflict, either. Natasha cared about her for some reason, and if she found out...

The Avengers and the Director both watched as she took a deep, shaky breath before she opened her eyes and spoke.

"I would like to be assigned a new trainer."

The Director's eyebrows rose. Rhmer was one of his very best agents, next to Romanoff and Barton.

So why would she want a new trainer?

He narrowed his eyes at her and demanded, "Continue, please."

Hope flinched at the coldness of his voice. Taking in another deep breath, she said, "There were...complications."

Silence.

She wrung her hands, gaze firmly locked on the floor. She really did not want to elaborate, but she could tell from the look she was receiving from the Director that that wasn't an option.

To tell or not to tell, that is the question.

Finally, after having a long, internal debate with herself, she decided that telling them would be best.

Sighing, Hope reluctantly told them, "He, um, kissed me while we were training."

Hope didn't want look up, since she could feel the Avengers fury as though it were her own. The strength of everyone's rage made her wince. Hopefully Natasha and Clint were angry at Rhmer and not her. They had worked side by side on missions before (or so Rmer claimed), after all, so they might side with him and not her.

The Director didn't say anything in response, so Hope peeked through her lashes to see how everyone-including the Director-was reacting. Though she could taste some of their anger and surprise, she wasn't quite sure who all was angry, nor whom they were angry at.

What she saw surprised her.

Virtually everyone had a mask of murderous rage on their faces, even Steve's. Natasha and everyone else's (excluding the Director, who appeared to be indifferent) rage she understood, but Steve and her weren't overwhelmingly close. She hadn't known him for very long, and the first and practically last time she had ever spoken to him was when they first trained together.

So she merely chalked up his rage to how and when he was raised. Hope couldn't think of another reason as to why he would be so angry about this.

"Rhmer. Did. WHAT?!" Natasha screeched, and Hope winced.

"It was just a kiss, Natasha. Not anything...more serious than that," Hope said, in an attempt to reassure her friend. Hope hadn't meant to get her so riled up

But Natasha wasn't listening to her anymore. She was livid, storming around the room and swearing in Russian. A few times she tried to exit the thing, a gun held tightly in her hand, but each time she was stopped by Clint, who murmured a few words to her.

And so the cycle went.

Hope was surprised by this, for she hadn't thought they were that close, but then again, she'd misjudged relationships before. Maybe this was one of those times.

Clint was currently trying to calm his partner down, with little success. Natasha was no longer caring about whatever Clint was saying. Instead, she muttered under her breath on how she was going to teach Rhmer not to mess with her teammates while simultaneously trying to slip past her partner (and failing).

Steve somehow managed to still look angry at what Hope had admitted yet amused with Natasha's behavior.

Hope, on the other hand, was horrified. She should've told the Director in private, where no one could hear them, instead of in front of everyone.

She just couldn't stop messing things up. Hope was the ruiner of the peace, the starter of conflict. Maybe, just maybe, she could think before she speaks.

Bowing her head in shame, she murmured quietly, "Perhaps I should leave. Please...forget what I told you. It's unimportant and nothing to get so angry about."

Natasha's head snapped over to her. Marching over to her friend, she took Hope by the shoulders and said firmly, "You don't need to apologize. If anything, Rhmer should learn his place."

Hope shook her head and bit her lip. She knew Natasha cared. There was no doubt in her mind about that. But Rhmer was a very, very good agent. He went on many missions, saved lots of people, and did joint operations often. Causing a rift between the Black Widow and Rhmer over a stupid kiss wasn't worth it.

Not to Hope, at least.

However, at the steadfast determination in her eyes, she realized that Natasha wasn't going to let this go anytime soon.

So, deciding that turning the other cheek was the best solution, Hope told Natasha, staring her straight in the eyes as she did so, "Natasha, it is not too big of a deal. So long as he is no longer my trainer, and as long as he doesn't train others anytime soon, we shouldn't have to do anything more to punish him."

The two women locked eyes for a long moment, the spy searching for doubt, hesitation, or something along those lines in the newbie's eyes.

But she found none. Hope was firm on this-nothing would change her mind. She was seeing past any personal feelings she might have, just so Rhmer could continue keeping his job and saving people.

"You're too selfless," Natasha whispered to her friend, who grinned.

"Yes, but would you be able to stand me is I was selfish instead of selfless?"

The spy considered the question for a moment before the corners of her mouth quirked up.

"Point taken," she replied, and the two shared a smile.

Then, straightening, Natasha turned to the Director and told him, "I promise not to take my revenge so long as Rhmer is forbidden to train Hope or any other recruit for a while."

The Director pursed his lips, considering it, before he nodded once.

And once again, Hope was glad about the fact that it had been just a kiss, nothing more. Had it been, she was pretty sure Natasha would go full out Black Widow on Rhmer.

Suddenly, a thought came to her. Judging by the looks Natasha, Steve and Clint where sending her, she figure she would be the one telling Bruce and Tony about the kiss and the fact that Rhmer wouldn't be too badly punished for it.

Sometimes Hope really hated her teammates.

 _If you can't tell, I'm pretty bad at beginning and ending chapters. I'm hoping I can improve, though. Also, I probably made some mistakes this chapter-but it was the weekend and I wanted to get this done quickly. Weekends are pretty much the only free time I have to write. But anyway, thanks for reading! I hope to read some reviews from all of you awesome people!_


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, nor Marvel.**

As you'll probably notice, this chapter is rather rushed and not very put together. I was sort of blank on ideas, but I figured if I didn't try to write something, it'd be a month before I actually published anything. Also, Thor is finally in this chapter, but as you'll soon find out I didn't give him too much dialogue. I'm just testing out how to write in that old, fashiony way Thor speaks (yes, I know "fashiony" isn't really a word). Hopefully this chapter isn't too much of a disappointment. The next chapter should be better.

I hope.

 **Chapter 7**

"No, _Great Expectations_ was better," Hope argued, and a faint grin spread over Bruce's face before it quickly disappeared.

It had been a month since Hope's admission in the Director's office. They had kept it between themselves, for her sake, and the punishments that Hope had requested were put into place and then 's trainers had been changed, switching from Rhmer to a kind forty-something woman who was very patient with Hope, something she greatly appreciated.

Not only was Rhmer's job to train recruits taken away, but he was also restricted to just desk work for a period of six months. Hope thought Natasha had a hand in that, but she didn't have anything to prove it other than a smile from Natasha when Rhmer's fate was announced.

Sometimes the spy brought a shiver down Hope's spine with her antics.

Now, though, was a time for celebration, as dictated by Tony. Everyone (even Thor) was at Tony's newly reconstructed tower for dinner, something Tony had arranged in an effort to help everyone get to know Hope a little bit better. Tony was steadfast in the fact that he just wanted to show off that his tower had been re-built, but Hope knew better. Despite what he often said and did, he was a great man underneath all of the ego.

Hope had been very nervous about meeting Thor for the first time, for he was, after all, a God and prince, but Natasha had reassured her that she should be herself rather than act like someone else.

So now, Hope was eating lasagna, sipping wine and debating heatedly over the works of Charles

A typical Friday night for Hope, believe it or not, though it was usually just her and Bruce and not everyone else.

"Actually, you're wrong. _A Tale of Two Cities_ was way better," Bruce shot back, but she shook her head, refusing to admit defeat.

The Avengers shared bemused looks. They'd never seen or heard Bruce or Hope arguing like this before, and it was quite a sight to see.

Thor looked confused, however, so Natasha explained what Bruce and Hope were talking about to him. Though the explanation didn't seem to clarify much for the god, it did seem that he now understood that they were arguing about classical books from Earth.

"Are you two seriously arguing over which Charles Dickens book was better?" Tony asked, his face stricken. Hope and Bruce paused in what they had been saying to turn to look at him.

"Yes," they said at the same time before turning back to continuing arguing with each other.

Tony groaned, putting his face in his hands.

"My teammates are pathetic," he whine, and Hope whirled on him.

"Why are we pathetic, Tony? We are merely passionate about literature and are not seeing eye to eye right now."

When Tony failed to look convinced, she added, "Say, hypothetically, that someone were to create another AI and insisted it was better than Jarvis. Wouldn't you argue them till your face turned red?"

Tony sighed, realizing that he'd lost. She did have a point.

After thinking about it for a moment, she said, "Though I highly doubt anyone could be better than you, Jarvis. You do everything he is too lazy to do, after all."

At this, everyone burst into laughter, and Hope smiled, pleased with herself.

"Thank you, Miss Ashton," came the sound of said AI's voice, and Hope chuckled.

"You're welcome, Jarvis. But keep in mind, without you, Tony would be a raving lunatic who wouldn't be able to find where his pants are," she told him, and more laughter followed.

Tony pouted at Hope.

"You're mean. And after all the hard work I did arranging this dinner, too," he whined, and she rolled her eyes.

"Tony, you and I both know you didn't lift a finger this whole day."

Tony opened his mouth to argue but then closed it. She was right.

Hope smiled smugly, knowing she had gained the upperhand. Argument with Tony over, she returned her attention to Bruce again.

They argued for another half an hour over which book was better, with the others cutting in every once in awhile with comments of their own. Natasha and Clint preferred _A Tale of Two Cities_ while Steve and Tony enjoyed _Great Expectations_ more. They made sure, however, to stay out out of the main argument-they left that to Hope and Bruce.

Hope could tell neither of them would yield, so she decided to end it for once and for all.

"Let's just agree to disagree. We'll never get anywhere with this argument, especially at the the rate we're going. You favor _A Tale of Two Cities_ and I prefer _Great Expectations_. Let's leave it at that."

Bruce seemed to think over her words for a moment before he nodded. "Agreed," he said. There was silence for a moment before everyone at the table began to talk. They gushed over their favorite parts of the argument, how Tony had been, as Clint put it, "burned" by Hope.

Then, after the novelty of everything that had transpired wore off, they all slipped into their own conversations.

Bruce discussed science with Tony, the particulars puzzling everyone but Hope, who had a fuzzy image of what they were conversing about. Clint and Natasha spoke in hushed whispers about weapons and missions they'd been on, reminiscing about their past.

Thor, with no one to talk to, had gone to the living room and was now messing around with Tony's television, trying to figure out how it worked. Hope feared it would end badly and that the TV would be smashed or short-circuited by the Norse god, but since no one mentioned it, she stayed quiet about it.

Steve and Hope, meanwhile, talked about what the world was like back before he was ever Captain America. It was a fascinating subject for Hope, and she listened with rapt attention, clinging to his every word.

She had bonded with Steve over the month, after the issue with Rhmer was dealt with. Though she wasn't as close with the Captain as she was with Bruce, and though they didn't have a lot in common, they had developed a friendship. They shared a few mutual pastimes-running in the morning, their love of art, and how they missed the older, simpler days, with less dependency on technology.

When Steve had exhausted everything he could possibly say about the era he was born in, they moved onto another subject. They each shared tips and skills that would be useful in battle, as well as went over good fighting strategies. Eventually Natasha and Clint joined in on the conversation, giving their own expertise on the matter.

It went on like that for an hour or two until a crash sounded from the living room, followed by the booming voice of Thor who was cursing and yelling.

Everyone exchanged before Tony bolted out of his seat and ran into the living room.

"I knew that was going to end badly," Hope muttered, and Natasha shot her a grin before proceeding to listen in on the billionaire scolding the Norse god.

"Oh, c'mon Thor! That was my favorite TV!"

"I am sorry, man of iron. But there was a large beast coming out of your 'TV' and I feared it would try to attack me,"

"So you threw your hammer into my television."

"Yes, but that beast was going to try to harm me."

"Thor, they're just moving pictures. They can't come out of the TV to hurt you."

"Oh."

" _Yeah_."

The Avengers fell into silence until Hope spoke.

"Well that was fun, Next time let's break Tony's suit."

Everyone made sounds of agreement at this.

Hope smiled-tonight hadn't gone as horribly as she'd thought it would.

 _Again, I really need to work on my endings, as you can clearly tell. Hope you enjoyed, and please review!_


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or the Avengers.

 **Sairahiniel** : I **'m glad you liked the last chapter. I surprised myself when I mentioned Tony knowing a classic piece of literature, but I figured that, since he's a genius, he might have read the book just because it was a classic and a little harder to read than other modern books. I wanted to add some banter to show that Bruce and Hope don't get along all the time-they have their moments, just like we all do. Thank you for telling me the characters have been in character so far-it means a lot to me.**

Now, onward with the reading!

 **Chapter Eight**

It had been two days since the dinner at Tony's. Thor had left almost the second the dinner had ended, probably to go see Jane before he left for Asgard again. Clint and Steve had been assigned a mission last night to do together and they wouldn't be back for another week. Bruce, meanwhile, was working with Tony on...something. No one was quite sure what exactly it was they were working on, but everyone figured it would be best not to ask. Natasha and Hope had remained at SHIELD, though Hope suspected that would soon change.

Natasha was, after all, one of the best agents SHIELD had. Ignoring her superior skills would only prove to be be a disadvantage to the agency. Not only that but it would also be an insult to the Black Widow and her abilities, as they would be "snubbing" her, more or less.

Hope, meanwhile, was currently training with her trainer, Agent Harrison. Harrison, or "Mary," as she demanded to be called, had been training new recruits for almost twenty years. She was a kind woman, and after raising three children practically all on her own, she had gained the patience of a saint. It was a trait that Hope greatly appreciated, especially since her former trainer had been so impatient.

"I don't understand. You did this perfectly last week. What's the problem?"

Hope shot her trainer a look, then jerked her head in the direction where Natasha was sitting. The spy had insisted on overseeing her training and wouldn't take no for an answer. She wasn't sure why Natasha wanted to watch her being trained, but she figured she'd be given the reason soon enough.

Mary's eyes widened in understanding.

"Oh."

Hope nodded, her face grim. Having a master spy, high ranking SHIELD agent who was also a former assassin and fellow teammate overseeing her training did nothing but increase her nerves. The term "no pressure" could be applied here.

The two glanced over at the spy, though she merely rolled her eyes at their attention.

Shaking her head Mary gestured for her to try the move she hadn't done correctly again.

This went on for hours, and when it was made obvious that Hope was not improving, Agent Harrison decided to postpone their session and try again later. She then proceeded to exit the training room, leaving Hope along with Natasha.

Natasha wasted no time and was out of her spot in an instant, striding towards her friend. Hope, knowing that trying to leave wouldn't achieve anything, just stood still, waiting for the spy to reach her.

Hope was very wary of her friend, however; the spy's hands were behind her back as though she were hiding something, a notion that the empath didn't like.

"Do you know how to shoot a gun?"

Hope blinked, surprised by the question.

"No, I don't know how to shoot a gun, Natasha," she answered slowly, unsure of where her friend was going with this, though she had the sinking suspicion that whatever it was she wasn't going to enjoy it.

Natasha smirked, then revealed what was behind her back. It was a fairly small black object,only a little bit bigger than her hand. Hope groaned when her eyes finally recognized what it was.

It was a gun. Natasha was nonchalantly carrying a gun behind her back like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Then again, she was a master spy and assassin, so maybe it was normal for her. In any case, the fact that her friend had been holding a gun behind her back like it was the best surprise ever unnerved Hope to no end.

"As your friend I feel that I must inform you that you are terrifying me with your unhealthy obsession with weapons. My advice to you is that you should consider taking up a new hobby," Hope said. Natasha smirked but didn't say anything in response.

Then, just as Hope had feared, the spy handed her the gun. Gingerly she accepted the potentially fatal weapon

"It's not a grenade or a bomb, Hope; you don't need to hold it like it's going to explode on you," Natasha reprimanded her, a frown on her face.

Hope made a face.

"I'm an empath, Natasha. Using a gun on someone would be like stabbing myself in the heart," she told her friend, taking care to enunciate each word as slowly as she possibly could. Maybe then Natasha could understand that Hope using a gun was not a good idea. When Natasha still looked blank, however, Hope sighed.

"Because I'm an empath, I'll be able to feel my victim's pain as though it were my own. Shooting someone would literally hurt me," she explained, but the spy merely shrugged her words off with a smirk.

"You won't have to shoot people, just targets, I promise," she said in a pitiful attempt to reassure the empath.

Then, when Hope still looked doubtful, Natasha sighed and showed her the targets. Unsurprisingly, the targets were paper targets made in the shape of people, like the kind of targets police officers and government agents used for practice. SHIELD was, after all, a government agency, extra secretive as it was, so of course they'd use human-shaped targets.

After being shown what she had to shoot at, Hope begrudgingly agreed to practice shooting with a gun.

Natasha showed her how to load the gun, how to hold it, and more importantly, how to shoot and use it. It wasn't as hard as she had originally feared, and her aim was rather exceptional. The only problem she had was the amount of recoil the gun (a nine millimeter, she thought) gave out. However, with a few quick tips from Natasha, that problem was easily solved.

"You're doing pretty well," Natasha praised her reluctant pupil with a smile. It only been a few hours since she had started practicing shooting a gun, but the spy was already giving her words of praise.

"Now try to shoot the target right in the center of the head," the spy instructed her, pointing at the target in the exact area where she wanted her to shoot. Hope nodded, lips pursed in concentration as she tried to aim for the target's head. Her aim was good, but it's difficult to make a head shot. Natasha had told her about aiming for the head earlier in the lesson.

The head is a small body part and thus pretty tricky to aim for, and it's also easier for a person to dodge it (though why she would need to worry about that when it was just a basic target was beyond Hope). That's why most people go for the the torso-it's bigger and a better target, and easier to shoot.

Snipers, of course, don't have to deal with this problem (usually). They're well practiced enough to get whatever kind of shot they want.

Finally, after a few seconds spent aiming, she decided to just shoot and hope for the best. So she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.

She waited for a minute, eyes still closed, wondering if the bullet had gone right where she wanted it to.

However, Hope was too nervous to find out if it had or not. She kept her eyes firmly closes, not daring to open them for fear of finding out that she'd failed. She was curious to find out if she'd hit the target as instructed, but not curious enough to open her eyes. Instead she opted to rely on her friend for the answer.

Since Natasha's face was often indifferent and difficult to read, Hope knew her best bet was to use her powers of empathy and figure out what emotion the spy was feeling. Maybe then she could know if she actually hit the target like she was told to or not.

A strong feeling of pride hit her hard in the gut almost the instant she began using her powers. Hope nearly gasped at the sensation but stopped herself. It was best not to let the spy know she was reading her emotions. Not only would it be frowned upon, but she also knew Natasha might not like Hope reading her emotions without her knowledge.

Not that Hope could blame Natasha-she wouldn't appreciate someone else knowing her emotions so accurately, either.

But the pride coming from Natasha told her something. She had either hit the target's head, or she had managed to get pretty close.

The feeling of pride radiating from the spy gave Hope a surge of confidence, so she opened her eyes, determined to see what how well she had done.

This time she was unable to stifle a gasp of surprise.

"I feel sorry for whatever poor sap encounters you in an alleyway," Natasha finally commented, letting out a low whistle. Hope wasn't really listening, though; her focus was all on the target.

For right there, dead in the center of the target's head, was her bullet.

Now Hope understood why Natasha had been so proud of her.

 _Maybe learning how to shoot a gun wasn't so horrible after all._

* * *

 _I can't believe it took me this long to figure out how to make that horizontal line I've seen in another people's stories. There is a button that literally says 'horizontal line" on the edits in the doc manager. Now all I need is to figure out how to make a page break without having to type the actual word._

 _Anyway, so there you have it. Another chapter. Sorry it took so long for me to finish-I've been really busy. I understand the bit about where to aim at people was...odd, but it was just a fact my dad once told me that I found interesting. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, please review and/or come back for more. Thanks for reading!_


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers nor do I own Marvel.**

Sorry it took me so long to update. I haven't had internet access for almost two weeks. Also, I know this chapter is rather short, but that's just because I wanted to get something out there ASAP.

S: I like that you liked the "Natasha and Hope bounding through guns" thing in the last chapter. I had originally intended Hope to be unable to hurt people, because whatever she did to them was done to her, but then I realized that contradicted with my plot, so I scraped it. Instead, I made her an empath-it sort of enhances things and gives readers more perspective into other the emotions of other characters. And see more of...what exactly?

Thanks for those reading of you who are sticking with my story, and a special thanks to those who review *hint, hint*

And now, on with the reading!

 **Chapter 9**

Three weeks had passed since Hope had first held a gun and had practiced shooting. Natasha had decided that she didn't need any more practice with a gun, so she had sent her to train with Clint. Hope, however, proved hopeless at archery, so they had skipped it and moved on to knives.

Which meant Natasha was, yet again, her mentor. One of her mentors, at least. Mary was still training her, but it was no longer focused on fighting and combat. Mary was now focused on training Hope to be a better agent. Her acting skills, were, according to her trainer, flawless, so they didn't work on that. Nor did they work on Hope's perfect survival skills. Rather, they were working on her decision making skills.

Hope was, apparently, too kind to make any "good decisions." She was unable to make the choice between kill or be killed. She was too weak, in Mary's opinion, to be a full-time field agent. Both her trainer and the Director, however, took her empathy skills into consideration. So they acknowledged that she wasn't a totally loss-she just shouldn't be given the right to decide what would happen in in a mission.

That didn't mean, however, that Mary was going to give up on her pupil. Far from it.

Now they were in Hope's room. It was so quiet one could hear a pin drop. Finally Hope could stand the silence no longer and asked, "Is that really such a good idea? Perhaps we should wait until I've trained a little more before I start to do something so...life-impacting."

Natasha quirked an eyebrow, wondering why her friend was so doubtful of her capabilities. She had barged in on Hope reading in her room only moments ago with what she thought had been exciting news. She had thought Hope would be delighted by what she was going to tell her, but she wasn't. Not really, anyway.

They were packing and preparing themselves now, with Natasha leaving every five minutes or so to go to her room, which was right next to Hope's.

Or at least the spy was preparing herself. Hope was too surprised to do much else but sit and gawk. And argue.

Oh how she argued.

In response to Hope's question, Natasha let out an impatient sigh before nodding. Tucking a gun into a holster at her hip, the spy said, "Mary thinks you're ready. She says your skills are impressive and that there's not much else she can teach you. She's told Director Fury this, and so he thinks you're ready."

When she failed to respond, Natasha shot her a look.

"If he says you're ready than you are. So stop arguing with me and start preparing yourself. We won't be able to turn the Quinjet around just because you forgot your gun."

At this Hope made a face.

"I'm unable to shoot people, Natasha. Bringing a gun would be unnecessary," she reminded her friend, who merely grunted in response.

With a sigh, Hope left to go get ready for her first mission. Truth be told, she was a little excited. Fury trusted her enough to assign her to go on a mission with her teammates. That being said, she was also very anxious. She was so afraid of something going wrong, of someone getting hurt, but she tried to reassure herself that something like that wasn't going to happen.

All she could do was pray and hope that it wasn't as dangerous as she feared it would be.

 **~Page Break~**

"We'll be landing in about an hour," Natasha informed the Avengers from the pilot seat. Everyone else nodded, save for Hope, who was too nervous to do anything but stare blankly at the book she had brought for the trip.

Her first real mission, and they were only an hour away from commencing it. The thought made her sick to her were dozens of what ifs buzzing through her head, increasing her nervousness.

What if she messed things up? What if the villain managed to get away because got distracted? What if she got captured? What if Natasha or some other fri"end of hers got captured?

Natasha shot a worried glance at her friend and new teammate. Hope's fists were clenching and then unclenching, and she was as pale as a sheet. Not to mention, she looked sick, like she might throw up.

What made her even more concerned was the fact that, though Hope had a book, she was not reading. Hope was always reading in her free time. She almost never put a book down until she was finished with it. To see her not reading made Natasha's worry level for Hope reach its peek, so she decided to ask what it was that was bothering her.

"Hey Hope? Are you okay?" Natasha asked, and everyone's attention swerved to Hope. Hope, however, didn't even look as though she had heard Natasha speak; she just kept staring blankly at her book.

The Avengers exchanged worried glances. The empath was their friend and to see her like that made them terrified for her.

Natasha cleared her throat as loudly as she could in an attempt to attract her attention. Only then did she finally look up.

The spy felt a sharp pang in her heart when she saw her friend's facial expression. Her face was so desolate and somber that it made Natasha want to turn the Quinjet around and go back to the Helicarrier.

Hope eerily resembled an animal right before the slaughter. Like she was without any hope, which was strange since her name was Hope. Not her birth name, but the name she had chosen for herself. You'd expect a person who willingly decided to name herself Hope would have that. Then again, maybe she chose that name because she wanted hope but lacked it.

In any case, the empath looked on the verge of hyperventilating.

Natasha took it upon herself to be the one to comfort her friend, but in order to do that she needed to _not_ be piloting.

She glanced around the Quinjet, looking for a suitable pilot to replace her, when her eyes landed on her fellow SHIELD agent. Clint could take over for her while she went over to reassure her friend.

"Psst, Clint!" she hissed to her partner. The archer looked up and over at Natasha, who had made a 'come here' gesture with her hand.

When he begrudgingly did so, she told him to sit down. He obeyed, and she told him, "Take over for me, please."

He nodded, and without uttering a word of protest, did as ordered. The spy, meanwhile, strolled over to Hope's side.

Hope looked from Natasha to the Quinjet's controls before grimacing. There was a long silence as Hope struggled with coming up with words to match her worries.

"I just don't want to hurt people," she finally said, picking at the corner of her book's bookmark to avoid looking at Natasha. If she did, then the spy would know she was lying, and Hope didn't want her friend to know that.

Natasha was quiet for a moment before she replied, "Sometimes you have to hurt people in order to help people. Sometimes it's the only way to save innocent people."

Hope nodded, finding the truth in her words. More silence.

"Al-alright."

Natasha smiled at the empath's response, then, assuming the matter was fixed, commandeered the controls back from Clint. No one spoke, because no one really needed to. Because the matter was taken care of.

Or at least they all thought so. Their new teammate thought differently.

Hope stared at her book's cover, feeling the beginnings of tears prick her eyes before she managed to will them away. She had hated lying o her friend, but she had to. It was the only way to save face. Then again, she hadn't completely untruthful-most of what she had told Natasha had been the truth. In fact, virtually everything she had said had been the truth. Only one small, tiny little detail had been missing in her confession.

What she had really meant to say-what she wanted to say but didn't find the courage to-was that she didn't want to hurt people...again.

But she didn't say it. Instead, she kept quiet the whole flight there to their destination, all the while feeling the sharp pain that came with guilt fill her as she regretted lying to her teammates but finding no choice _but_ to lie.

Actions speak louder than words, after all. Hope had learned that the hard way.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers nor Marvel.**

Don't get too happy about the word count. About 400 words of this chapter are my author's note.

 **coffeetablewriter** : I'm glad that you liked this chapter and that you enjoy my story. It gives me the drive to move on. Yeah, as I was writing that chapter, I figured what she said would be something that Natasha might say-either Natasha, or Clint. One or the other. I hate to admit it, but her first mission was a tad bit on the easy side. At least I think so. I hope you enjoy this chapter, though! Keep on writing that amazing story of yours, too! I really like it!

 _Author's note_ : _I am so, so sorry for not having updated in a while. School/homework has been piled on high lately, so it's been harder for me to find any free time to write._

 _I realized, as I read through this particular, very unedited story of mine, that Hope is coming off as a Mary Sue, something that naturally horrified me. When I started this story that was never my intention, but sometimes intentions can go awry. Rest assured, I will make sure there are things that she sucks at (maybe in the next chapter, ***hint, hint*** ). I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me for making my OC (unintentionally) a Mary Sue._

 _Also, there's another thing I've noticed that I'm surprised no one's yelled at me for yet. The fact that almost all of my chapter start off like "so-and-so amount of time has passed since [blank] happened..." Now, at first this was accidental and I was freaking out about it, but now I've decided that this will be the start of almost every chapter in this story. The reasonings behind that decision is that I am planning on writing another story, most likely called "Hope: The Missing Days" (or something along those lines, that, as the title implies, will detail days in the life of Hope Ashton that I missed in this story. I'll start publishing chapters of it when this story is done, and it'll include things like bonding moments, funny moments, emotional moments, and just random filler chapters._

 _The goal is, once both stories are done, to integrate this story with that "missing days" story. That being said, they may just stay separate, because if I do integrate those two stories together, I'll probably have to take down this story, work on it every passing second, then my whole life will most likely become a disorganized mess as I struggle to revise chapter after chapter. In any case, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and that you don't ask me about its ending, because my lips are sealed. Now, after setting that mysterious undertone, I give you my permission to read on._

 **Chapter 10**

The mission was simple, considering the fact that the Avengers had been called in. Hope hadn't bothered to pay attention to where they were going-the only thing she knew about their destination was that it was somewhere in Europe. More specifically, a Hydra base somewhere in Europe.

The Hydra base was to be taken down. It was a small base, so it wouldn't require too much work to take it down. Bruce was on standby in the Quinjet for this mission, but should they need him, he would come.

Steve took the role of leadership upon himself the moment they landed. He barked out orders and the rest of the Avengers obediently followed them. No one said much in terms of protesting, though Tony said a sarcastic remark at any order he wasn't happy about

Steve had wisely split them all up into different groups-Clint with Natasha, Hope with Tony, and Steve by himself. Thor was in Asgard at the moment, so he would be of no help to them.

Steve had first thought to pair Hope and Natasha up, in order to help with Hope's nerves, but then decided against it. He needed some way to wrangle in Tony and his rashness. So instead of the all female pair, Hope would be grouped with Tony', in order to help with his impulsiveness, and since Natasha and Clint worked very well together, he put the veteran SHIELD agents together. They made a very effective, quick team, which would help with clearing up the building.

And the sooner they got done clearing the sooner they could go be done with this mission.

The folder that Steve had been given in the debriefing gave a very detailed map of the Hydra base's layout. There were three entrances, and each group would enter a different one. They would all enter at the same time, however, once Steve knew everyone was ready and gave the signal.

Hope figured that this assignment had been picked specifically for her, seeing as this was her first ever mission as a SHIELD agent and they wanted to test her skills. That, and they wanted to confirm if she was true to her new allegiance, or if her loyalty still lingered with Hydra. Which was, of course, absolute folly. SHIELD had give her so much, unlike Hydra, which had taken things from her rather than giving them. So of course she placed her loyalty in SHIELD. There was no question in her mind.

This mission was her final test to prove where her royalties lied.

And she was not going to fail.

* * *

Tony and Hope where Team A. Natasha and Clint where Team B, while Steve was Team C. Hope worried for Steve, for he was a single man all alone, without any allies to watch his back, but she reminded herself that he was a strong, capable fighter and that no one would be able to get the best of him.

At least that's what she told herself. Even after repeating the phrase over and over in her head, her concern for Steve still lingered. But she knew that, in order to be successful and complete the mission, that she would have to stop worrying about Steve's own safety and worry about her own, as well as Tony's.

Yes, if anything, Hope needed to worry about the genius billionaire. He was so impulsive, so reckless, so stubborn and thickheaded. Sometimes he reminded her of a five year old, with their "my way or the highway" attitude.

If anyone was going to mess up the mission than it would be Tony. In truth, she wasn't sure why he was here in the first place. Anyone with a brain knew that the billionaire wasn't fond of SHIELD and its secrets. So why would he willingly go on a mission when he could do something "better" with his time?

Before she even begin to wonder about the answer to her own question, however, the signal from Steve came over their comms. It was a very straightforward signal, one that might have earned some sort of vocal response from Hope had they been doing something other than taking down a Hydra base.

"Team A, go."

Tony and Hope exchanged looks before they rushed into the Hydra base, both ready for action. The anticipation for the battle soon to come made Hope's heart pound. The sound was so loud that she was afraid one of her teammates might have heard her through the comm, but no one said anything about it, so she merely brushed it off as paranoia and continued forward.

They'd been in the base for a mere two minutes, surveying the area, before Hydra agents came flooding into the room they were currently in.

Hope, without any hesitation, plunged into the mob of men, kicking and punching anyone who was in arm's reach. The fight was too loud for either person of Team A to hear if the other teams had been called in or not.

She didn't want to use her powers in the fight unless absolutely necessary. If word somehow got out that a brunette woman was using powers not usual for the typical mortal, then he might find out. And if he found out, her life would be made into a living hell.

So yes, she wasn't planning on using her abilities anytime soon.

The fight was too loud for either person of Team A to hear if the other teams had been called in or not.

Tony, for his part, mainly just watched Hope fight, though he occasionally sent a few men into unconsciousness here or there. Figuring it was just laziness, she said, her voice a yell to compete over the loudness of the battle, "Are you going to help me or are you just going to stand there and gawk?"

He regarded her for a moment before yelling back, "Yeah, sure, use my Iron Man suit in a space of 400 square feet. Real smart. Oh, congratulations on your amazing skills of logic. They're just superb."

Hope glared at him for a moment, dodging the swipe of a Hydra agent as she did so.

"Tony, just shut up and help me," she snapped, and Tony, after rolling his eyes, did just that.

* * *

The battle didn't last too long, in Hope's opinion, considering the dozens upon dozens of agents they had had to fight. Once they were finished, they secured the area and went to the agreed upon meeting spot.

Only to find that they where the first ones there.

At first, Hope had panicked, fearing the worst, but Tony had managed to calm her down enough so that she wasn't going into hysterics. But she still worried. And she made sure to let Tony know of her worries, much to his dismay.

"What's taking them so long?" Hope demanded, and Tony sighed.

"I don't know. All I'm hearing on their end is static," Tony replied, only to widen his eyes as he realized what he had just said. Hope was now full on hyperventilating, pacing around the room, muttering, and running her hands through her hair, ll signs of extreme nervousness. Tony groaned. Great. Just perfect. Now Natasha was going to kill him for freaking out her friend.

Oh joy.

He had meant his words to be comforting, but she had interpreted them as "something was wrong." However, thinking over his words, he realized that it did sound exactly like that. It did sound like he had said comms weren't working (though he had really meant that no shouts of "mayday" were being called).

Before he could open his mouth to reassure her better, the doors near them burst open and Team B and Steve entered. Hope halted in her pacing and whirled to face the doors, fists clenched in anticipation for a fight. However, once she realized that it was her fellow teammates and not enemies, she quickly relaxed.

"Is it done?" Hope asked. She would leave questions like "are you okay" and "are you injured" for later, back when they were in the comforts of their agency, not here.

Natasha nodded but didn't expand any further. Without any more words, they headed off in the direction of the Quinjet.

No use staying in the place that rank of death. No use at all.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, on the Helicarrier...**

To the casual observer, Agent Warner didn't look like much. Many people's attentions went to her for a second before they quickly dismissed her, moving on to someone they thought "more important."

This was fine by Agent Warner-in fact, she preferred it. Being passed by and ignored made her job, her mission, much, much easier.

Glancing over at the clock, she realized with a jolt that she needed to provide an update on the happenings in the agency. She glanced over at her superior and asked, "Excuse me, sir, but may I be excused?"

Her superior regarded her for a moment before nodding. Without another word, she quickly stood and got out of her seat. She walked as fast as she could to her assigned living quarters to give her report without fear of anyone prying on the conversation she would soon hold.

Once there, she closed the door, making sure it was shut. Then, without wasting anytime, she threw anything she might be holding on the floor and set off to establish a connection with her "friends" as quickly as possible.

She held a hand to her temple for a few moments, closing her eyes in concentration as she did so. Finally, after a long moment of silence, she dropped her hand back down to her side and opened her eyes again. A moment later, the shrill sound of phone ringing pierced the relative silence of the room. Agent Warner rolled her eyes and sighed before taking out her phone to answer it.

"Hello?"

There was quiet on the line for a while, then, "Is she there?"

Agent Warner sighed again, pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers, obviously frustrated.

"She's currently out in a mission right now."

More silence.

"And when will she be back?"

She shrugged, then, realizing that the person on the other end wouldn't be able to see her shrug, said, "I don't know. I'm not exactly high up on the SHIELD food chain, so they don't tell me anything about upcoming missions. Especially ones that don't involve me."

Though she hadn't meant to reveal it to the other person, there was a slight bitter tone to her voice. Neither person commented on it, though, just continued on with their conversation.

"She is, apparently, doing quite well," Agent Warner said. This information had been gleaned from Mary, the subject of their conversation's trainer. In fact, come to think of it, she had sounded very, very happy about her pupil's progress.

Instead of the usual silence she thought she would receive in response to her words, the person on the other end asked, "They haven't...damaged her, have they? She is relatively the same as we left her?"

Snorting, the woman replied, "No, they haven't. As far as I know, she's still herself."

"Good. And when do you think we'll be able to get her back?"

Ah, now this was a question she had an answer to. With a smirk on her face, she assured the person whom she was speaking to, "Soon. Very soon."

Then, without another word on either person's part, she hung up.

* * *

Did you enjoy that rather ambiguous ending? I know I did. I will expand no further on the ending.

I understand that Tony's reasoning for not being very active in the start of the battle were pathetic/untrue. That was kind of the point, actually. I wanted him to give the most horrible excuse possible and then for Hope to smack some sense into him.

You'll have to read the next chapter to find out what happens next. "See" you then!


	11. Chapter 11

_So I've decided to grace you guys with another chapter, since I finally have the free time to write one. Hope you like it!_

 _Also, has anyone else noticed how I went from more formal dialogue to informal dialogue, or am I just crazy? I mean, yes, I am crazy, but am I crazier than I thought?_

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

A week had passed since they had overtaken the Hydra base. Nothing had really changed in SHIELD, save for the fact that Hope had been assigned three more missions. They were short, easy missions, though they did get subsequently harder after each mission was performed.

But now wasn't the time to think about Hope. No, now was the time to worry about one of the Avengers, the sometimes green monster, man also known as Bruce Banner.

* * *

The atmosphere in the room was tense as Steve, Tony and Clint all exchanged looks. No one was quite sure what was wrong with Bruce-when he had left the Helicarrier he had been smiling and worry free, but when he had returned it was like all of the life had been sucked out of him. Everyone was unsure of what to make of it...until they'd watched the news, that is. The news report had detailed a huge, green monster rampaging in downtown New York. No one had been killed, but there had been some injured, though not severely so.

Since the green monster was, without a doubt, the Hulk and therefore Bruce, the Director had ordered the doctor to be locked up, though not necessarily in isolation. After all, he wasn't making a fuss about the fact that Bruce's friends were currently with him, trying to figure out what had gone wrong with him. When their efforts yielded nothing, they'd unanimously decided to call in reinforcements. Specifically, the help of their resident empath, Hope.

Hope, after hearing about what had happened, had rushed out of training with the her new trainer, the Black Widow herself, to investigate and figure out what exactly had happened. Natasha, without much hesitation on her part, had soon followed suit.

* * *

Hope and Natasha shared a look outside of the room containing the rest of their team.

"What do you suppose happened?" Hope whispered. Natasha shrugged.

"I guess we'll find out."

Then, without another word, they opened the door and stepped inside.

Neither woman was prepared for what they saw. Their teammates were huddled-minus Thor, who was visiting Jane for the day-around Bruce, who was sitting in a chair, wrapped tightly in a blanket and shivering. Though he was looking at everything around them, eyes darting this way and that, Natasha could tell he wasn't really seeing them. Rather, he was most likely re-experiencing what he'd felt and seen as the Hulk.

While the spy was observing things quietly in her spy ways, Hope's empathy was coming back to bite her in the butt.

The utter sadness of one of her friend's hit Hope like a baseball bat to the stomach. Hope had felt lingerings of what someone had been feeling-remorse, sadness, despair-from outside of the room, but it was nothing compared to what she was feeling now. She let out a gasp and stumbled under the sheer strength of the feeling, though Natasha quickly saved her from falling over. After assessing her friend for a moment and deciding that she was alright, she strolled over to the Clint and the two began to mutter to each other, the subject matter most likely about Bruce's "condition."

Hope, however, paid them no heed, Her attention was for Bruce, the origin of the strong remorse she was currently feeling.

"Bruce?" she asked hesitantly, her voice barely above a whisper. She wanted to know what had happened that would make him feel like...this. No, she needed to know.

He didn't respond, nor did he show any signs that he had heard her.

Another wave of emotion hit her, this one stronger than the last, making her fall to the ground. Since Natasha was on the other side of the room, there was no one to catch her when she fell. To everyone's horror, she stayed on the ground, curling herself up into a fetal position.

Bruce, however, didn't notice Hope and whatever pain she was clearly in, too absorbed in moping and staring at an affixed spot on the floor as he was.

"Hope?"

The concern in Steve's voice made her want to smile, but the only response she could give was a moan as a wave of vertigo swept through her. Bruce's emotions were too strong for her. Far too strong for her to handle.

Natasha almost started forward, but Steve held her back. Clearing his throat, he tried again.

"Hope?"

Another moan, though this time it was followed by mumbled words he couldn't quite make out.

 _Third times the charm, I suppose_ , Steve thought with a sigh.

"Hope, what's wrong?" he demanded, using the best "Captain America" voice that he could.

Hope shifted a bit on the floor and uncurled herself, though she made no attempt to stand or sit up, choosing instead to just lie there.

He could just make out her saying "Bruce...pain...empathy" before she curled in on herself again.

Natasha's eyes widened at her words. She swore lightly under her breath before walking over to Hope. This time, Steve didn't stop her.

Crouching down beside her friend, she said as quietly as she could while making sure her voice was still audible, "Do you want to leave?"

To her surprise, Hope adamantly shook her head while simultaneously moving herself out of the fetal position.

"It's not a matter of what I feel, since it's not really me who's really feeling it," she said in response to Natasha's shocked look. Er, well, her very cleverly veiled shocked look. Natasha was a spy, after all, and old habits die hard.

Standing up with visible effort, and while using the redhead as support, she hobbled over to the despondent Bruce.

"Bruce," she said, nudging said scientist. He grunted but otherwise didn't reply. Natasha wisely decided to walk away, though she stood close enough to help Hope if need be.

For now, though, it was all up to Hope. No one else had managed to get Bruce out of his slump.

Rolling her eyes at his response, or lack thereof, she said, her voice low, "Please, Bruce. Don't act like nothing's wrong, because that is obviously untrue."

When he still continued to do nothing but glower, Hope sighed.

"You can't hide whatever is wrong. In case you have forgotten, I am able to feel everything that you're feeling right now," she reminded him. At this he looked up. Hope felt a pang in her heart that was, in this case, her own when she read his brown eyes and the hopelessness and self-loathing hidden in their depths.

Whatever had happened had been very bad.

"Oh, Bruce," she murmured, hopefully too quietly for him to hear.

An idea came to her then. Hope was about to write it off when she realized that it might help Bruce.

Everyone was silent as Hope mentally debated with herself. Finally, Hope decided it would be best to reveal the truth about herself, for Bruce's sake.

"I've killed people before," she stated without really thinking about how she worded things Her top priority right now was to help her distraught friend right now, not worry about what everyone might think of her for her admission.

Sure enough, every pair of eyes in the room was now on her.

"Uh, sorry, what did you say?" Tony asked, thinking he had heard wrong.

With a sad smile on her face, Hope repeated, "I've killed people before."

The silence she received in response to her words made her sigh. She knew it was best to elaborate, so she did.

"It was back when I was a Hydra agent, back when my empathy skills were practically nonexistent. I was fourteen and had been assigned to "protect" someone like me, someone who had powers. I later realized I wasn't protecting them, just keeping them from escaping. Anyway, it's midnight, and I'm bored. There's no activity, nothing, and when I'm just about to pull a book out of my pocket, it happened. The first time I ever took the life of another."

 _~Flashback~_

 _She had just sat down, a tattered copy of "Pride and Prejudice" held tightly in her hands, when a noise alerted her to someone else's presence. It wasn't much, just a slight scuff against the cement floor, but it was enough to alert her to the fact that she was no longer along._

 _She knew that whoever it was was not on her side. Her father had told her that there would be no one but her in the wing she was in-no guards, no scientists, no one. Her father may not have been the most honest of people, but on important matters like this, he wouldn't lie. So of course the person had to be the enemy._

 _She stood up,, and just as she did, a figure stepped towards her. It was a man, dressed from head to toe in long, black clothes. He was young, most likely not a day over twenty-five, with blond hair and sunglasses on his face._

 _"Who are you?" she demanded, hand gripping a dagger tightly at her side. The man's gaze flickered to the dagger, to the cell door behind her, to her face, then back to the cell door. A laugh escaped his throat._

 _"Name's Norman Morris. I'm a SHIELD agent. Who are you?"_

 _Salina snorted. Her father had told her SHIELD agents were weak and thus easy to defeat, so she didn't have to be as uptight and on alert as she currently was._

 _With a chin raised defiantly in the air, she replied, "My name's Salina Abel. You're not supposed to be here."_

 _Too late she realized she'd spoken in French, but then figured it didn't really matter. It wasn't like he was going to leave here alive, let alone with the person she was guarding. Agent Morris' eyebrows shot up to his hairline at her choice of language before he regained his composure, rolling his eyes at her words._

 _"Well aren't you a bright one. Now step aside. I don't want to have to hurt you, little girl," he said, replying in the same language she'd used._

 _Without waiting for a response, he stepped forward._

 _She didn't think-she acted. She lunged forward, raised her dagger, and swiped. She had meant to only slash his arm, a warning to tell him that she meant business, but misjudged her distance. Instead of hitting his arm, it went across his chest instead. Evidently the dagger had also gone deeper than she had intended, for he stumbled back and collapsed onto the floor._

 _"Nice job," he managed to get out before the light left his eyes, and he died._

 _For hours afterward, until dawn came, the only other sound she heard was the muffled weeping of the person in the cell behind her._

 _~End Flashback~_

"After that, I was assigned to be more...in the field. My superiors were very pleased with the death of Agent Morris, so they put me in the frontlines. By the time I realized what I had done-what they made me do-I had a body count of fifteen."

No one spoke. Not even Tony, the man who had a "way" with words. In all honesty, Hope had expected their silence. Then again, she had also expected rejection, so maybe she really shouldn't expect things to happen.

"Really? Only fifteen people? That's nothing," Natasha said with a roll of her eyes. Hope stared at her friend, incredulous, before Tony spoke.

"Yeah, fifteen. Super impressive. You fill me with such fear," he said dryly.

Steve shook his head and clapped Hope on the back.

"You shouldn't worry about things like that," he told her, which received the desired effect of a grateful smile coming from Hope.

Suddenly, Natasha burst into laughter though what exactly it was she was laughing about was lost on her teammates. Soon enough everyone had joined in the laughter, and the room was filled with the happy sounds of laughing heroes.

Hope smiled when she heard a few chuckles coming from Bruce, and comforted herself with the knowledge that-for now-everything, and everyone, was alright.

* * *

What the Avengers didn't know, however, was that someone was looking in on the joyous heroes.

Agent Warner narrowed her eyes at the scene in front of her. Pulling her cellphone out of her pocket, she dialed the only number that had ever been inputted on her phone.

The person answered on the first ring.

"Hello?"

Without wasting a moment, Agent Warner informed the person on the other end, "We need to hurry. They're winning her over."

Silence.

"So the plan needs to be executed sooner than we thought."

It wasn't a question, but a statement.

"Yes. Round everyone up and get them over here. Stealth is a priority."

"When do you need us?"

Agent Warner thought about the question for a moment before the answer hit her.

"Tomorrow night. We'll take her back tomorrow night."

More silence.

"Alright. Tomorrow night it is."

Satisfied that her orders would be followed, Agent Warner hung up, and stalked away from the one-way window she had been peering through, a confident stride in her steps that hadn't been there before.

They were finally going to get her back. Nothing would stop them. Agent Warner wouldn't let _anything_ stop them.

She would be theirs again. That thought made her stop in her tracks. After a long time of waiting for the perfect moment, they would be getting her back.

She started to walk forward again, a smirk making its way on to her face.

Oh, yes. Nothing would stop them.

Absolutely nothing.

* * *

 _I spent ten minutes on the ending, thinking in my head, "yes, stop there. Quit typing and just stop. Right. There." Then I'd reread it and be like, "oh, no, wait, no, that sucks. Add some more words to it."_

 _So that is why the ending is "eh."_

 _And yes, I know, I promised to rid Hope of her "Mary Sueness" in this chapter, but I figured what happened in this chapter/what was revealed trumps getting rid of my unintentional Mary Sue-like qualities._

 _I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. Rest assured, I will give her something she's horrible at next chapter, I promise._

 _Also, I'm beginning to think Steve and Hope are bonding a bit too much. However, I have something that will get rid of that-and it's not just the inevitable relationship between Hope and Bruce. I will say nothing else about what's to come._


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I own my OC, but everything else belongs to Marvel.

 **CoffeeTableWriter: Yeah, admittedly I was a bit concerned about throwing in the whole "I killed someone under orders when I was just a teenager," but it seemed to work out fine in the end. Steve is really sweet, yeah. In fact he's probably my favorite Avengers character because of his sweetness-next to Bruce of course. This chapter, unfortunately, doesn't have a lot of Bruce and Hope relationship building, but there will be a lot in the next chapters to come. Thanks for your review-I know (or at least _hope_ ) that I've said this before, but I meant it: you are the fuel of this story. Without you, I'd completely give up. So thank you. **

_Author's note: I am so, so, so sorry for not having updated recently. Life just spontaneously decided to say "screw you, Taylor," making it difficult for me to write anything. I hope you enjoy/can forgive me for making you wait so long._

 **Chapter 12**

They'd been walking for some time, to where Hope wasn't really sure, when suddenly she was reminded of something.

"So what exactly was it that awakened the Hulk?" she began conversationally. Bruce paused at the question, as did the rest of the Avengers who were very curious to know the answer but lacked the guts to ask it. No one seemed to know their way around Dr. Banner like she did.

Bryce ran his hand through his hair as he thought. He finally let out a sigh and mumbled something Hope couldn't quite make out.

"Excuse me, Doctor, but I didn't quite catch that. What did you say?"

He rolled his eyes, and just as he opened his mouth to repeat what he had said, someone collided into Hope, causing her to stumble, though she caught herself just in time.

"Sorry," the person mumbled in apology. Hope smiled, about to say something along the lines of "it's alright," only to stop short when she caught a good look of the person's face.

She looked very different from the last time Hope had seen her, but that could be attributed to the fact that she was now wearing a wig and contacts that changed her eye color. Though this girl seemed to display a meek, timid attitude, Hope knew her for who she truly was.

A method actress. Which of course meant that the girl before her was a lie, a fake invented for her own purposes, whatever they may be. But Hope suspected she knew just what this girl was planning in that pretty little head of hers.

"It's perfectly alright. Just...be more careful next time, okay?"

She nodded, apologized once more, then left. Hope watched her go. She knew that the girl knew who she was. It was obvious by the glint in her eyes, by the flicker of a smile curling on her lips as she apologized. She just hoped that whatever it was that was being planned wouldn't hurt anyone. After all, it was the only thing she _could_ do.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to the others. They were all looking at her expectantly, and with a flushed face, she quickly rejoined their ranks.

"So...about the Hulk appearing in Times Square..."

Even as she listened to her friend tell a a tale that had her feeling very sympathetic to his plight, but at the same time made her want to laugh, she couldn't help but let her mind wander to the plan that had been concocted under all their noses...and what consequences would follow.

* * *

Something was wrong with Hope. And whatever it was, the Black Widow decided, had happened around the time she had been bumped into. She had been perfectly fine beforehand, but afterwards, she was always acting rather paranoid. Always looking over her shoulder, watching what she said, jumping whenever someone spoke to her...Queen of Subtlety she was clearly not.

But ever time she'd ask her what was wrong, Hope would insist that everything was fine. So finally Natasha resorted to spying and investigating, her specialty and something she should've done to begin with. She found out the name of the agent who'd crashed into Hope, a Samantha Warner. She didn't have a very clearance level, being a newbie and all, and she had a squeaky clean record. Nothing too eyebrow raising about her, if the files on her were true.

Then again, with her skills as a superb hacker, the electronic file could have been forged for all Natasha knew. This, of course, brought into question her trustworthiness. But her coworkers liked her well enough and they didn't find her to be a suspicious character at all, so maybe she was overthinking things. However, if she _was_ overthinking things that still didn't explain why Hope seemed so spooked all of the sudden.

Clearly there was more to this girl than meets the eye.

"Is everything alright?"

Natasha blinked, turning her head to look over at her partner. Clink raised an eyebrow, gesturing for her reveal all.

"Because, you know, you were spacing out and frowning, two things you don't normally do let alone do at the same time."

Natasha hadn't realized she'd been doing either of those things, but she must've if he noticed. She shrugged, not really knowing how to phrase what was haunting her mind without sounding paranoid.

Something flashed through his eyes, an emotion, a feeling she couldn't quite place for the life of her. He glanced around, surveying the area, before he leaned in and whispered, "It's Hope, isn't it?"

It was times like these that forced her to remember just how well Clint truly knew her. If he didn't know her as well as he did, then he wouldn't have known it was Hope that was bothering her. She was just that good at keeping her true emotions hidden. Natasha gave the briefest of nods, and Clint muttered something too low for her to hear under his breath.

Louder, he confessed, "I noticed it, too. In fact I think even Tony noticed something was bothering her. She's not very good with hiding things, is she?"

It came out more as a statement than an actually question, but she decided to answer it anyway.

"Nope."

She was gifted with a wry smile, courtesy of Clint.

"What do you think we should we do about it?"

Once again, she shrugged.

"I've already done what I do best and that didn't really get me anywhere. In fact I think I have even more questions than I have answers."

"We could always follow her around for the whole day. Observe her movements, ward off undesirables, that kind of thing."

Natasha considered the suggestion for a minute before she smirked.

"Let's do this."

* * *

Following Hope was like watching paint dry. It was both boring and uneventful. But it did provide some helpful insight into Hope's character. Something striking that they'd discovered after watching her for a few hours was that she wasn't very good with technology. She could do simple things with a cell phone, but beyond that she was utterly hopeless. Laptops, computers, tablets and other items were beyond her. There was one time that she actually had to ask someone how to copy and paste.

"How did she survive working with Tony?" Clint remarked, sounding horrified. Natasha could only hum in agreement as they both watched her stare blankly at a tablet she'd been handed.

"Maybe she did everything on paper," she supplied, banishing the idea as quickly as it had come with a shake of her head. Paper just wasn't Tony's way of doing things.

"Do you think we should track down the the agent that caused Hope's shift in mood and interrogate her?" Clint asked.

"I mean, I know you've already done a background check on her, but interrogating usually gives us way more information than a simple look through someone's records would."

Natasha tilted her head, considering the idea, before a thought struck her. Hands on hips, she narrowed her eyes at him and demanded, "How did you know I looked up the agent already?"

He scoffed, holding a hand to his chest and looking mock-offended.

"Please, Nat, you insult me. You said you've already done what you do best, right? So of course that means you've already done some sleuthing. I'm not an idiot, you know."

Rolling her eyes and snorting, she said, "You could've fooled me."

His eyebrows knitted together and he muttered a low "ouch."

She smiled and strolled past him, knowing he wasn't the least bit hurt by her words.

"So what's the plan? Corner her and force her to talk?" Clint questioned, having already fallen into step behind her. Natasha shook her head, twirling one of her throwing daggers in her hand as she thought.

"We need to be more casual. Make her think that we don't suspect a thing. Let's make her squirm without letting her know the real reason why we're talking to her."

Clint nodded. "Classics senior intimidation tactic it is then."

* * *

 _Damn them. Damn these agents to hell and back. They found me out._

"I-I'm sorry, but I don't understand."

Still, she needed to keep her cool. Keep up the façade just a little while longer. Just until she could nab Hope and get the heck out of dodge.

"W-what is it you want from me? My coworkers just asked me to go on a coffee run, and I need to get going."

The Russian's eyes narrowed. Mentally she cursed herself.

 _Damn it_ _, girl. You need to be timid and submissive, not upfront and demanding. Tone the bravado down._

"I, uh, can't show up late like I did l-last time. So please let me go. I can't be late again."

Their stances softened, but she was not one to be so easily fooled. They were lulling her into a false sense of security.

 _Two can play at that game_ , she thought, before she purposefully dropped the paper that had the list of what her caffeine addicted coworkers were craving.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Excuse me."

Bending down and forcing her hands to shake, she reached for the list. Agent Barton, however, beat her to it, something she had been counting on.

What she hadn't been counting on was their eyes meeting. She blushed as they did so before quickly averting her gaze, realizing too late that, unlike the other times, the reddening of her face was by no means forced. Then again, her blush could work in her favor.

Wordlessly, Agent Barton handed her back the list, and she took it with a mumbled "thank you." Both stood back up, and to give herself an opportunity to reorganize her thoughts better, she began to smooth out the slightly crinkled list as best she could without ripping it.

"What are you two doing?"

Natasha and Clint jumped, startled, before turning to face the one who spoke: Hope. Her eyes instantly zoomed in on the figure between them, eyes widening as she recognized it as Agent Warner.

She directed her attention towards her teammates and said calmly, "I'm not an idiot, you know. I know when I'm being watched."

The way her hands shook and the way she glared at them made it clear that the empath was angry.

"You have no right to follow me as you did! Nor did you have any right to look into Agent Warner's files!"

At that Natasha drew herself up, enraged.

"I had every right! You weren't acting like yourself after you collided with her! Of course I had to do some investigating!"

She stopped, shuddered, then took in a deep, calming breath. In a softer tone she continued, "You're my friend and I was worried about you."

It took some time and a lot of convincing and apologizing, but eventually Hope managed to calm down. And when she did, she set her sights on Agent Warner.

"Hold it right there," she demanded when she noticed the agent trying to subtlety edge away from them. The girl let out a squeak of surprise of being called out so suddenly before she focused her attention on Hope. Natasha and Clint both silently and mutually agreed to let Hope handle this, though they would step in should the need arise.

"Y-yes, Agent Ashton?"

Hope groaned. "Cut the act already. I understand what you're trying to do

The result of her words was staggering. Immediately, the girl dropped her pretense and stood, arms crossed against her chest and a smug smirk on her lips.

"Shouldn't have bumped into you, huh?"

Even her tone was different. No more was it quiet and begging to be pitied-now it was filled with an ego and confidence that rivaled that of Tony.

Hope shook her head.

"No, you shouldn't have."

The girl cocked her head, then sighed, admitting defeat. She uncrossed her arms, allowed them to hang at her sides, then locked eyes with Hope.

"Still...it was about time. We couldn't waste any more time bringing you home, especially with everything we've risked. I think even you'd agree, right, Mother?"

* * *

 _Again, a meh ending, but with a twist all the same. Kudos to those who figured it out, though I know I wasn't exactly subtle about it._

 _I know I didn't take her Mary Sueness in a way that I promised you I would, but that's just because her inability to use/understand technology really well is only one of the many faults she has that I've presented to you. Have faith, readers, that there will be more faults to come._

 _Just an FYI, most of this story-as well as my other stories-has been written with an iPad, so that's why some words don't make sense. It is the iPad's autocorrect function that is making some words out of context, not me deciding to mess with your heads-I'm mean, but not_ that _mean. Unfortunately, I lack someone to read my stories over, and while I do try, some mistakes slip past, and for that I apologize._

 _I'd also like to apologize for the rather inconsistent formatting of the chapters, particularly with the end author's note and the beginning. From now on, these should be always italicized (though the disclaimer will remain "normal") and the "Chapter so-and-so" at the beginning will be bolded, with the number not written out and placed smack-dab in the middle. Response to reviews will be bolded as well. All of these are minute details, I know, but their differences throughout the chapters has been driving me crazy. Now, though, it shouldn't, since everything's cleared up._

 _Also, can someone explain to me what a "beta reader" is? Is it in any way like an editor?_


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, or Marvel-I merely own my OCs.

 **lizziecats: I'm very happy that you love my story and character so much. I figured having Natasha and Hope as besties would be a good idea because they have somewhat similar back stories, and the Black Widow really needs a fellow girl on her testosterone filled team. And Bruce...a lot of stories (not all, just some that I've read) give Steve Rogers a girl, and that's fine and dandy, but there's not a lot of love for Bruce, and since Bruce is my favorite Avengers character...I also knew that Hope should be friends with everyone in some way or another (even Jarvis), so better to create the inner conflict shown in the below chapter. I hope this was updated soon enough.**

 **CoffeeTableWriter: I wish I could get a beta-reader. Do you have one? I was fretting, when I first introduced "Agent Warner," about what to call her. Her real name was out because people already knew it, and I didn't want to ruin anything. So I just called her Agent Warner (which is, in fact, her real last name. Just an FYI). Yeah, Nat really cares about Hope and vice verse. They're good for each other, I found. Again, I hope this was soon enough. And yes, writing does take time. I know whenever I look at my story and see how long it takes for me to update/write a 1,000 some word chapter.** **I'm actually posting this story, not just because I love fanfiction or because I wanted to write a Bruce/OC story, but because I'd read Cassandra Clare started off writing fanfiction before she ever started actual book writing. I figured writing a story on this site would help me achieve my dream to be an author. But I don't care as much about that now. Not anymore. I'm writing fanfiction, not really to improve my writing, but because I know you guys love this story so much.**

 _Author's note: I know, the chapter's pretty short (the author's notes I add in here have a_ lot _of words in them), but I wanted to get something out there ASAP. Also, remember when I talked about making a "missing days" story? Well, I'm still planning on writing it, but it will just be a series of one-shots. If this doesn't strike your fancy, let me know-I'll probably set up a poll (once I figure out how) to see whether you want me to write this or not._

 _Question: did I accidentally call "Agent Warner" Agent Warren anywhere in the last few chapters? If I have, please let me know. If I haven't, leave my poor insane self to my musings, please._

 _Announcements for the start over and done with, I hope you like this chapter, and I promise that the next chapter will be longer and will feature the rest of the Avengers._

 _Please, enjoy!_

* * *

 **Chapter 13**

There wasn't much that could surprise Natasha. In fact, she could probably count on one hand how many things had made her mind go blank in shock. But this...this topped them all.

Her mind had been, for the moment, silenced by this revelation. It was all white-noise, static. She scrambled for her bearings, but ultimately failed.

Finally, she managed-somehow-to regain the tiniest flicker of thought, and so she acted on it before it could slip through her fingers.

"I'm sorry, what?" Natasha sputtered out, taking an involuntary step back. Admittedly not the most clever of things to say, but she'd take what she could get. A glance at Clint told her that he held a look of disbelief on his face, an expression she knew for certain was mirrored on her face, too.

"Oh, you mean you didn't manage to figure it out? I thought you spy types were good at that sort of thing," she said, a smug smile on her lips. Hope let out a huff, and her attention swerved to her.

"Selene..." she said in a cautious tone, and Selene rolled her eyes but nodded.

"Okay, fine, I get it. I'm not allowed to mock your besties," she snapped back bitterly, and Hope's expression softened, but only momentarily. A look of thunderous anger took over her features, and Natasha couldn't help but feel a little bad for Selene. Having Hope's rage directed at you sucked.

"What did I tell you?" she demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at her. Selene held up her hands in surrender, afraid of the anger that was currently being directed towards her.

"Um...not to follow you?" she replied, smart enough to know that a witty retort was not in her best interests at the moment. Hope, jaw set firmly, just glared at her. Selene gulped, finding the floor beneath her to be much more interesting than the enraged woman before her.

"They've pretty much forgotten we're here, haven't they?" Clint whispered, and Natasha nodded. They sighed and resigned themselves to just watching the argument that was enfolding before their very eyes.

"Exactly. And I expected them to be followed perfectly, and yet, here you are. So tell me, Selene, what made you decide to disobey me and come into the lion's den to bring me back."

Something in Selene must've snapped then, for her head jerked up to stare at Hope coldly. Through clenched teeth she hissed, "I'm not some soldier. You can't just tell me what to do."

The empath arched a brow. "Are you sure about that? You've followed most of my orders up until this point. What changed?"

Selene threw her hands into the air, clearly frustrated, before gesturing wildly at Hope. "You! You changed everything because you just _had_ to be Miss Martyr!"

A gasp. Then, "Of course I stayed behind! I wasn't going to let you all help me just so you can be caught!. What sort of protector would I be then?"

Selene bit her lip and paused, thinking over her next words carefully. Finally, she admitted, "A horrible one."

Before Hope could say anything in reply, she quickly continued, "But at least we would've had you with us! Everything's descended into chaos not that you're gone."

At these last words she sighed, shoulders slumped in defeat. Hope let her anger fade as the realization of her words hit her.

"Grace?" she asked, and Selene shrugged. Clint and Natasha shared confused looks, but were ignored. They decided just to go with it.

"A hysterical mess, but she's still with me."

Hope pursed her lips but didn't comment. Instead, she fired off another name.

"Erica?"

"With me, but I don't know him much longer I can stand her. Every little thing you say pisses her off. Then again, that's normal for her I guess."

Hope rolled her eyes but kept going.

"Athena?"

Selene shot her a look. "Of course she hasn't left. There's no way she'd be able to survive in the city without us."

"Rose?"

Selene tapped her ear. Hope didn't even have to look to know what she was indicating. "She's my communication, listening to every word we say. She'll warn me if things go sour."

"Morgana?"

Selene tilted her head, considering, before she shrugged. "Eh. She's still a part of the group anyway. Mentally, we're not so sure. I don't think she's had a decent night's sleep in days. Stupid workaholic."

Hope snorted. That sounded like Morgana alright.

"Haley and Isabelle?"

Her heartbeat faltered when Selene shook her head, eyes downcast. "They took to the streets. Without you, they saw no reason to stay, and they were certain we wouldn't be able to bring you back unscathed, so they gave up like the pathetic cowards they are."

Hope leaned forward and smacked her in the arm before letting it rest at her side once more. Selene winced, rubbing the spot where skin had met skin.

"Ow."

Hope smacked her again.

"You shouldn't say things like that," she admonished. Selene just snorted.

"Hey, I call 'em as I see 'em."

Oh how she wanted to hit her again. She leaned forward again, just about to, but thought better of it, making a gesture for the girl to continue. Selene did, warily.

"Joining them in the spineless little weasels circle are Kylie and Jessica. Like the twins, they didn't think staying was worth it."

Hooe nodded, then licked her lips, suddenly nervous. Now how to go about this...

"And...and Jacob?"

Selene faltered a bit, an action the SHIELD agents took notice of, before she simply replied, "Gone."

That seemed to be explanation enough as Hope nodded and seemingly dropped the subject.

"So...now what?"

Hope and Selen both jumped at Clint's voice before they whirled to face him. He stared back at them, unimpressed.

"A fight to the death for Hope?" Selene proposed, taking a step towards the archer. Clint shook his head.

"Nope. I have an even better idea."

And then, to both her surprise and horror, he turned to her expectantly.

"So what'll it be, Hope? Are you going to stay with us, or go back to your family?"

* * *

 _So that's that. What do you think she'll decide? What should she decide? Leave me a review and let me know._

 _Also, do you guys remember last chapter's ends note, where I talked about how most of my work is done on the IPad and how any mistakes you might see are all the device's fault? Well, that's wrong. Yes, there are some mistakes that are in there that are the IPad's autocorrect feature, but it is my fault that I failed to read through and check for mistakes, and for that I am extremely sorry. Not to mention mistakes of my own that have nothing to do with my IPad. I'm only human, a human without an editor. Mistakes will be made, and I'll own up to any you or I see that are big, in your face ones. That's why I need you guys to leave me constructive criticism in reviews-not outright insults mind you, but things you think I should improve upon (examples: dialogue, explaining things, describing things/people, portraying a characters' thoughts, portraying a character correctly, etc.)._

 _(Can you tell I'm review hungry yet?)_

 _On another note, I was looking back on the chapters in my story and I realized I neglected to reply to some reviewers. I want to apologize to those reviewers for that. It wasn't my intent to brush off your reviews like they were nothing (because they aren't), but I was in such a rush to publish the chapters that I only ended up replying to one or two. I'm really, really sorry about that. I promise that no one else will be ignored (unless I get to the point where there are too many to include) like I did in the past. Next chapter (since I've added a lot of author's notes to this as it is) I'll reply to those reviews I missed._


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Avengers and anything Avengers related is owned by Marvel. Hope Ashton and her "daughters" are the only things I own.

 **CoffeeTableWriter: I am having a lot of fun with this story. It's so awesome to write it, especially when I get feedback. I worry because people might not like it, but I'll try to tone down my fretting. Fingers crossed that Warner was always Warner and not Warren. Thanks for reviewing!**

 **Moonleaf Stormrunner: I have been working about correct character portrayal, so thanks for the feedback. It's nice to know I'm staying in character as much as I can. Your words, the moment I read the review, made me smile so much my face started to hurt. I'm really glad you like this story-it makes all the nights I stayed awake working on it worth it. I apologize a lot because I know I take forever sometimes and I'm always really rushed, so I'm worried I've screwed up a lot somewhere in the story. Thanks for the compliment-I'll try my best to deserve more. Thank you so much for the review!**

 **MeowMix1100: They have become her family kinda, that's true. Truth be told, I'm torn between who to put Hope with. So I did something evil/sneaky in this chapter (you'll see what I mean). I'm glad that you're as excited as I am for me to post another chapter. Thank you for your review!**

 _Author's note: Nearly five thousand words (excluding the disclaimer, review replying and author's note). Aren't you guys proud of me? This has to be the longest chapter I've ever written, or ever will write. But do I keep my promises or what? Excluding the two times I broke my word, of course, but I did stick to them the instant I could I swear. I've decided to answer past reviews next chapter, since this chapter is long enough as it is. But they will be answered, mark my words. Anywho..._

 **Chapter 14**

Selene snorted. "Oh good job Mr. Archer Man. Make her choose between the people she's known for barely a year or the people she's spent nearly a decade with. And here I thought you wanted her."

Clint turned to Hope. Jerking a thumb in Selene's direction, he asked hopefully, "Is there an off button?"

"Oh ha-ha, very funny. You're _so_ lucky I'm not Erica," she said, scowling. He looked at her, hand placed under his chin, and replied somewhat eagerly, "Oh? Why's that?"

Tilting her head and smirking, she responded sweetly, "Because she's a pyrokinetic who would eagerly burn your face off if she had the chance."

Hope made an idiginant noise in the back of her throat, and for the third time in the past hour, smacked the girl's arm.

"I thought I raised you better than that. No revealing other's secrets unless they give you permission to do so," she chided. Selene rolled her eyes, indifferent to the scolding, by all appearances seeming like she was totally used to it.

"Oh please. It's not like it will make her hate me any less," she replied offhandedly, waving Hope's words off. Hope frowned.

"I thought you two had overcome your differences and stopped loathing each other."

Selene snickered. "Uh-huh. And on the weekends we braid each other's hair and make necklaces out of daisies."

Hope sighed, placing a hand to her forehead as though she were experiencing a nasty headache. And in truth, she kind of was. Selene was, after all, standing right in front of her.

"Why must you be so difficult?"

Selene clucked her tongue and said as though it were obvious, "Because it's fun."

Hope opened her mouth, ready to retort, when a baffled looking Clint held up a hand to stop her. "I'm sorry, _what_? Pyrokinetic?"

With a smirk on her lips, Selene replied, "And that's not even the weirdest one."

She winced somehwhat at the scathing look Hope shot her way but decided to continue nonetheless (though only if further questioned). After all, they'd find out their secrets anyway, whether she told them or not. SHIELD was like that.

"Really." He sounded doubtful, like he didn't believe her. Which was perfectly fine by her because in all honesty, she didn't really blame him. A lot of people claim things that never end up being truth.

"Yes, really."

He still seemed like he didn't believe her. She frowned, studying him for a moment, then, with a mental shrug, snapped her fingers. Instantly, most of the lights in the room went off. She kept a few on, just to ward away any thoughts if an ambush that the two SHIELD agents might have.

Hope would never be considered as a SHIELD agent to her, not even in her head.

"What do you think? Neat trick, huh?" Selene asked, sweeping an arm to indicate the dim area around them. Natasha and Clint gazed at her suspiciously, but Hope just threw her head back and groaned.

Frowning, she snapped, "What, you two don't believe I did this?"

Looks were exchanged before Clint, arms crossed against his chest, said, "Well, no, not really."

"Really? Huh, guess I'll have to up my game then."

Hope saw the mischievous glint in her eyes and darted forward, but was too late, as Selene raised her hand and, with another snap of her fingers, shut down the Helicarrier. The engines, communications, lights, everything shut down. Well, probably not _everything_. In order to stay conspicuous, Selene had more likely than not kept the Helicarrier's camouflage on.

Even so, they were still plummeting at high speeds towards the ocean.

While Nat and Clint scrambled to try to fix things, Hope turned to the true culprit.

"Fix this!" she ordered, ignoring the grin on Selene's face for the moment. The girl rolled her eyes but complied. Everything in the Helicarrier turned back in, and it righted itself, gliding normally through the sky as if nothing had happened. But something had, and Hope wasn't going to forget it.

"What were you thinking?" she demanded, shoving her lightly, her face a mask of anger. She sure seemed to have been feeling that particular emotion a lot lately.

"What do you mean, me _thinking_? That's insane! Stop being so crazy, Hope, it's not a good look for you."

Hope merely stared at her. _She's going to be the death of me,_ she thought to herself with a sigh. Out loud, she said, "Just...don't do it again. Believe it or not, I happen to like it when my organs are in their proper place."

Selene saluted her. "Aye, aye captain."

"What," someone gasped out, and Hope glanced over her shoulder to see Natasha walking towards her, hand over her heart, "in the hell was that?"

Hope was prepared to answer but Selene beat her to it. "That was me proving to you naysayers that I do, in fact, have powers."

Natasha's hand twitched over her gun in its holster though she didn't pull it out. Still, Hope could tell the thought was tempting for her, and honestly, she couldn't blame her.

"That was _you_?!"

Selene modded, though her eyes strayed to the spy's gun. "Uh-huh. You guys didn't believe, so I had to do something grand."

For a moment, Hope was worried she would break out in jazz hands, but thankfully she didn't.

Natasha hummed thoughtfully, and for a long while, no one spoke. Until, that is, Selene noticed the absence of a certain archer, and inquired, "Did I accidentally kill him? Because if so, I'd like to apologize-killing people wasn't really my intent when I showed off."

"Really," Natasha remarked dryly.

"There's that word again," Selene muttered, and the spy arched a brow at her, silently asking her to elaborate. She did so, albeit with some reluctance.

"That word filled to point of bursting with 'I don't believe you.' It gets kind of annoying, after a while. Honestly, I'm pretty sick of it now."

"I'll try to refrain from using it."

"The sarcasm and snark is not appreciated and is in fact frowned upon. Please stop."

"Make me," the Russian challenged. Selene simpered, and looking entirely too pleased with herself, retorted, "I could cause that nifty little comm. link that's currently attached to your ear to short circuit it and electrocute you to death. Would that work for you?"

Natasha ignored her and instead turned to Hope. "So that's how you survived all of those years with Tony. You had practice."

"Not practice. _Experience_ ," Hope corrected, also ignoring the girl who had nearly killed them all. A thought suddenly struck her then, and so she acted on it and said, "It's oddly quiet considering the fact that a minute ago we were all plummeting towards our deaths."

"Oh trust me, everyone is panicking. You're just lucky you haven't been issued a comm. quite yet."

Hope shuddered at the thought. "I can only imagine, and even then, I don't really want to."

"Anyway," Selene drawled, drawing back their attention, "let's get back to the more important question: is Clint dead?"

"Nope," the voice of Clint came from behind them, and they turned. Hope's heart went out to him-he looked so tired and worn. But she could take comfort in the fact that he was alive and well.

"Not yet, at least," he continued, brushing off specks of dust from his arms and chest. Selene looked very relieved that he was alive, and Hope knew the root of why. She didn't want the death of a highly regarded and respected SHIELD agent on her hands. Not just a death in general, because for that she didn't really care, but it was killing the likes of him that she wanted to avoid.

"And I won't ask what that was," he stated, gesturing wildly to the area around them, "because in all honesty, I really don't want to know."

Natasha groaned. "Trust me, you really don't."

Selene nearly rolled her eyes. Again with the "really." At least this time, they didn't say it like they didn't really mean it. _Oh great, now I'm doing it, too_ , she thought, and this time she didn't even bother trying to stop herself from rolling her eyes. The irony here was, after all, too strong to completely ignore, even if it was only in her mind.

 _And on that note_...She turned to Natasha and, slinging an arm around her shoulders as if they were old friends getting reacquainted, asked, "So have I proven myself to you?"

Natasha, scowling, peeled her rm off of her and replied, "I suppose you have."

"Was she the one who did this?" Clint asked, slightly awed, and it showed in his voice. Hope, realizing that too many statements like that would go to Selene's head, just nodded and said nothing, covering the technopath's mouth with her hand when it looked like it was about to open and sending her a scathing look. Clint and Natasha watched the exchange without a word. Until, that is, Selene pried the hand off her lips and, pushing it aside, said, "In all of this chaos, Hope failed to tell us who she was choosing to stay with."

Directing her total attention to the woman beside her, she continued, "So out with it, Hope. Are you escaping with me, or will you be caged here?"

A lump formed in the empath's throat. Selene was right-she had forgotten all about that. But now the spotlight was on her, and she felt the pressure to decide like a knife against her throat-so painfully obviously there. Everyone was looking at her beseechingly (sans Natasha, who merely stared at her), and it terrified her. She hated feeling pressured; it was such a horrible feeling. And Selene, the little wretch, knew that. Hope narrowed her eyes at the aforementioned girl, who batted her eyelashes at her innocently in return, as though she weren't aware of the torture she was putting her through.

"I...I haven't decided."

She watched their faces fall and practically drowned in guilt. But it was the truth. She hadn't decided yet. Silently, she weighed the pros and cons in her head, ignoring the fact that they were watching her intently.

 _If I stay here, then the government will leave me alone and I can redeem myself. However, my girls will do suicide mission after suicide mission to get me back, and I'll have to barter everything I have to keep them free. Not to mention I'll be some agency's dog again, something which I loathe will all my being. And being seperated from my daughters._

 _If I go back with Selene, we can gather everyone up again and we can continue to be a family. However, I'll be constantly on the run, my girls' safety will be called into question every moment of the day, and I'll never be allowed to see my newfound friends again. We'll be enemies._

Again and again, she ran through everything. And again and again she was torn. Finally, though, she came to a decision.

"I would like to-"

But she never got to finish that sentence, for at that moment, explosions went off and rocked the Helicarrier. Everyone instinctively ducked, all but Hope. Admittedly she flinched a little, but she could shield herself and others from harm. She threw her arms out, and her shield formed around them, coating them in safety.

Hope knew immediately that whatever this was was not Selene's fault-she had morals, after all, and would never go this far just to get Hope back. Thinking quickly, she demanded, "Selene, damage report."

Her teammates opened their mouths to question her, but were stopped by Selene. The technopath straightened, held a hand to her temple and closed her eyes. A moment later she opened them, and said, "The engines are 50% demolished, as is the control panel. I'm not sure how much longer we can stay in the air for."

Hope shot her a glare and she hastily amended, "But I'll try to keep us up for as long as I can."

Hope nodded, and the two SHIELD veteran agents exchanged looks. They had known she had to be have been a pretty good leader to keep so many people together, but they hadn't realized she was this good. By some miracle, she had managed to rein in Selene's... _Tony-ness_ and had gotten her to act serious. Only one minute in the role of a leader and she had already gained their respects. Now _that_ was impressive.

They were all distracted by the sounds of a scuffle coming from nearby. Hope glanced in the direction the sounds had come from and her eyes narrowed.

"We need to move," she whispered, before turning on her heel and running as fast as she could to where she knew the control panel was. Perhaps they could help. Without a second of hesitation, everyone else followed. The shield Hope had created moved with them as they ran, not letting so much as a finger out of it.

"Do you have any guesses as to who did this?" Natasha asked as they ran. The reply the empath gave had the Russian on edge.

"I might, but I sincerely hope I'm wrong."

Selene glanced over at her, eyes wide, and Hope nodded, face grim. Selene knew who Hope was referring to. She had to. Natasha desperately wanted to know, but then again, it was just a hunch. There were bigger things to worry about at the moment, like making sure they didn't die.

"Can't you just..." her voice trailed off as she gestured at the area around them. Selene caught on immediately to what was being implied and shrugged.

"Like I told Hope, I'll try to keep us up for as long as possible. But don't get your hopes up-there's not much of an engine left to work with, but I'll try my best."

Natasha saw the look in her eyes, the intense hatred of admitting a weakness, however slight, and sympathizing with her, let the matter drop. They ran for a while in silence, and surprisingly came across no enemies. But they knew they had to be there somewhere, if the fight they had overheard was any way to judge, so they kept a close eye on their surroundings. Still, no one came to stop them. THe hallways were scarce, devoid of any life, agent or otherwise.

Hope prayed that the Director and all of her friends were all right as they came across the control panel room. _It's now or never_ , she thought, pushing the door open. She was met with a battle scene. Everywhere agents and masked enemies in black were fighting. And to all appearances, the enemies were winning, since a quick glance at the floor showed more agents downed than bad guys. Natasha and Clint flung themselves headfirst into the fray, no questions asked or any time to formulate a plan. Selene and Hope, however, stayed back.

"Did Rose-" she started, indicating the comm. in Selene's ear with her hand, but before she could finish, Selene shook her head.

"She was too focused on our confrontation to notice anything else. She was and is totally blindsided. She's trying her best, but we'll probably be without her for this battle."

"And it's just you, no reinforcements or anything."

"Unfortunately."

"And you're unable to fight because you need to stay focused so we don't crash into the ocean."

"Uh-huh."

"So I'm going to have to blindly throw myself into the fight without any assistance on your end."

"Yep."

"Right," Hope said, nodding with a sigh, before she did just as she promised and lunged forwards, catching an enemy unawares as she sucker-punched him in the jaw. An energy bolt appeared in her hand, and she shoved it into his chest. She then wrenched it free, and he fell to the floor, blood gushing through his wounds. But she had already moved on, mutilating another enemy who dared go near her. Hope was going to stay on the defensive for this battle, which of course meant keeping Selene safe from harm. She was, after all, the only reason they weren't currently treading water (if they even managed to survive the crash).

This she did on and on, until the moves blended into each other and she found herself repeating the steps in her head: _incapacitate, kill, repeat._

She didn't know how long the fight lasted for, as focused as she was, but she learned that it was over when a hand placed itself on her shoulder, halting her in her tracks. She was just gearing about to decapitate them when the person said, "Easy, Hope, it's only me."

Hope instantly relaxed at the sound of Steve's voice. Hoarsely, she asked, "Is it over? Are we done?"

She could practically hear the frown in his voice when he returned, "Not quite. We managed to capture someone. We'll be interrogating them shortly."

"The Black Widow?"

"The Black Widow," he agreed, and she nodded. Steve was still frowning as he checked her over. He knew she could fight, but had never seem her this ruthless before, so cutthroat. Wordlessly, she returned the favor and studied him for any injuries on his person before looking over her shoulder and spotting Selene, exactly where she left her. The technopath was hunched over, a head pressed to her temple. She was wincing, her eyes squinted in pain, and a steady stream of blood was trickling down her nose.

Hope ran over to her and, though confused, Steve followed. She knelt beside her and placed a hand on her arm comfortingly while the other caressed her face. Some tension leaked out of her body, but she still continued to use her powers despite how much pain she was in. Hope attempted to heal her, but since it wasn't a psychically made injury, there was nothing she could do.

"How close are the engines to being fixed?" she asked, not pausing in her motions. Steve simply shook his head, his gaze sad.

"No one has even had the chance to look."

Hope made a displeased grumbling noise in the back of her throat, then, still caressing, she murmured to Selene, "You're doing a terrific job, Sel. We just need you to hold out for a little longer."

She hated doing it to her, and hoped she would understand. Selene was, for the moment, the only thing keeping them afloat. Selene grunted, and Hope took that as a 'I'll try.'

To Steve she said, "Get someone working on it right away if no one has issued the order yet."

Steve nodded and did as told. He waited, and then the response came back on his comm. that someone was on their way. Hope seemed relieved by this, though she did not comment. He didn't expect her to.

"We should go," Steve whispered into her ear then. He wanted to question who this mystery girl was, but they really needed to get to the interrogation room. Natasha would be starting soon, and it wasn't something that should be missed. They needed to find out what had happened and who had attacked them.

Hope, lips pursed, reluctantly nodded. She stood up, then, with a concerned look at the girl, turned to Steve and asked, "Could you carry her, please? I'd rather not leave her here, alone. People might mistake her as an enemy."

She hoped this wasn't a mistake and that none of the blood would stain his suit, or more importantly, it wouldn't hurt Selene anymore than she already was.

Steve didn't question it-he simply hoisted her up as gently as he could and carried her bridal style to the interrogation room, Hope hot on his heels. Unbeknownst to him, Hope had a slight smile on her face. Steve was kind, too kind, for both his old time and this one.

"Who all was active?" she asked, and Steve started a bit.

"Pardon?"

"Were Tony and Bruce involved in this skirmish as well, or was it just Natasha, Clint, you and I?" she rephrased. He gave her a tight smile.

"If Bruce was active, trust me, you would have heard," he told her, and though she scowled, she nodded anyway.

"As for Tony..." his voice trailed off as his brow furrowed, and it became obvious to Hope that he honestly didn't know. A solution to the question popping into her head, she tapped his comm. link and commented, "If Tony were involved in the battle, I'm sure you would have heard him, too."

Steve chuckled, and he couldn't help but nod at the truthfulness of her words. In his arms, Selene whimpered, then went quiet. Hope worried her bottom lip, leaning forward to grasp the girl's hand with her own and stroked it with her thumb for a few seconds before letting go.

She couldn't explain how happy she felt when they finally reached the interrogation room. Finally, she could find out who did this to all of them. The Director, Clint, Bruce, and Tony had been staring at a seated figure through a one-want mirror, but they all looked up when they entered the room. Everyone looked greatly relieved upon seeing them whole and well, though it quickly turned to wariness when they spotted Selene. Wanting to avoid her daughter being shot, she gestured to the girl in Steve's arms and said, "This is Selene, one of my girls. At the moment she is the only thing keeping us from dying."

They all nodded, seemingly satisfied, and Hope took the time to study them. None of them were too injured or worse for the wear, which was good; just a few scraps here and there, all of which she promptly healed. Bruce didn't have that shroud of weariness that usually engulfed him after a Hulk-out, and Tony's suit was nowhere to be seen. Steve and Hope exchanged smiles. So they had been right, after all.

It didn't take her too long long to realize that Steve was still carrying Selene, so she directed him to set her daughter down in a corner of the room, propped up so she wouldn't fall over. That matter having been somewhat settled for the moment, they turned their attention back to the man in the chair. His wrist were bound together behind his back, and he was still masked. A thick looking table was directly in front of him. Natasha stood behind him, looking quite menacing and dreadful, eyes locked on him and him alone. Then, unceremoniously, she reached out a hand and yanked his hood off, and it took all Hope had not to gasp.

"I recognize him," she breathed out in horror, and everyone's attention swerved to her. "Clarke Syrelle, a Hydra operative low on the totem pole. More likely than not he has a capsule of cyanide in his mouth as we speak."

The Director peered at her. "That's already been removed."

 _Well that was a relief,_ she thought.

And then the interrogation started. Hope could only watch, eyes wide in wonder. Natasha was good. A little too good. At first, she started off with good cop, bad cop routine. She tried to be nice to him in order to get him talking, but when that didn't work, she started threatening him. When silence still continued to be her only answer, she tried to trick him. It worked. He let something slip, and Natasha pounced on it, goading him until he broke.

"Alright, fine, I'll talk," he hissed out, and Natasha stopped in her relentless questioning and arched a brow at him, silently asking him to continue. He did so warily.

"You were ambushed by a Hydra wing," he informed her, "with men from all over."

Natasha frowned. "That can't be all."

Looking fearful, he nodded, continuing, "We were sent here to recapture the empath."

Everyone stilled. Even Selene, out of it though she was, stopped twitching in pain in order to better hear what the man had to say.

"Our Intel told us you'd managed to outmaneuver her and recruit her to your side, that she was aboard the Helicarrier. And the boss man, well he really wanted her back, so he sent us to retrieve her."

Natasha pounded her hands on the table and demanded, "What did he want with her?"

Syrelle shrank in fear. Honestly, Hope couldn't blame him. Natasha was something to be feared, that was for certain. Especially in this moment. He stuttered out, "I-I-I don't know, really, okay, a-aside from her obvious powers."

She narrowed her eyes at him, unimpressed. He winced, and said, "Something to do with a vendetta or something...I don't know!"

His last words became a wail. Natasha studied him for one more moment, noting how shaken and defeated he was, before holding a finger to her comm.

"Director, I think that's all we're going to be getting out of him."

The Director nodded, and was about to give her the go-ahead to leave when Hope's voice said from behind him, "I would like the chance to try."

Then, before he could stop her, she walked through the door into the interrogation room. Natasha looked surprised to see her, though she quickly composed her facial features as she turned to face Syrelle again. However, he was no longer paying any attention to her. His gaze was for Hope and only Hope.

"Hello," she greeted, and he glared at her.

"You little bi-"

Profanity, she could see, was on the tip of his tongue, so she walked over to him and slammed his head down into the desk. Over his head, she sent the Russian spy a look, one that told her to leave. So Natasha did, joining the rest of the equally stunned superheroes on the other side of the one-way glass.

Leaning in, a hand threading into his hair and grabbing it tightly, she breathed into his ear, "Please watch what you say. As you can see, I am in control here; you are not. So I kindly ask that you not insult me."

He nodded frantically, and satisfied, Hope released him and stepped back.

"Now, Clarke, I'm going to ask you who sent you here."

Her voice was a scary, deadly calm. Her eyes dared him to make a wrong move, say something he shouldn't. He opened his mouth to say "I don't know," but she cut him off with a laugh.

"And don't say I don't know. We both know you do."

On the other side of the room, the Avengers were all debating if their friend was bipolar or not. Bruce had walked over to Selene in an attempt to help her, but he kept a keen ear on what was being said, both in the room he was in, and the one Hope was interrogating in. He, too, couldn't help but wonder.

Syrelle still hadn't said a word of reply. Hope waited, arms crossed against her chest, but when it became clear to her that he would not speak, she stepped closer and said, "Come on, Syrelle. Tell me who it is. Confirm my suspicions correct."

At this he looked up. Then, smirking, he said a name Hope hoped she wouldn't hear every again. But it was the name she had anticipated.

"General Alexendre Abel."

In other words, Hope's father.

* * *

 _A cheap shot, I know, but this is, I swear, how I wanted this chapter to go as soon as I started typing it. Now we can get into the real action. Ugh, but I still need to put more Bruce and Hope interactions and less Steve and Hope. I'm not betraying you guys, I promise-Steve's just an older brother figure to her. Next chapter there will be a Bruce and Hope moment, cross my heart. Any ways, bye for now!_


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Marvel related.

 _So here's the thing-next chapter will have previous reviews, not this one. I'm sorry that I suck at keeping promises, but this chapter also has a big word count. I think what I'll do is the chapter after this-which will be published as soon as I can today-will be completely devoted to answering reviews and will feature no content besides that._

 _On the note of a huge word count,_ _I am once again rather proud of myself. 4,450 (give or take a few and once again excluding all of my author's notes and disclaimer) words, people! However, all good things must come to an end_ _-knowing me, it will all go downhill from here. I'll try my best to keep them at at least 2,00 words, but I make no promises!_

 _Also, I am genuinely curious-would you guys like it if I cast actresses/actors for my OCs when this story is done, or even before then? I've seen other people do it and I really want to cast people, but I only want to go through the effort to pick actresses/actors to match what I have in mind if you want me to do it, so let me know, please._

 _I, um, don't have much else to say except express my worries for if I'm moving the story along too fast. My goal was to have this story be at least thirty chapters, but I'm pretty sure I won't make that goal. I mean, I might, but I have my doubts._

 _But anywho...let us commence with the reading!_

* * *

 **Chapter 15**

Despite the fact that she already knew the answer before he had even said it, the words still made her breath catch in her throat, and she froze. She closed her eyes, her hands clenching into fists at her sides, before she somehow managed to exhale and calm herself. Her eyes snapped open. She ignored the feelings that were not her own, her teammates' feelings of outrage and shock, and instead made slow, cautious steps around Syrelle, stopping only when she was directly behind him. She felt his heartbeat pick up when she placed her hands on his shoulders and allowed a tiny smirk to creep up on her face before forcing it to vanish. Leaning in, she breathed into his ear, "You are certain it was him?"  
He nodded, eyes wide in terror, and so she released him, stepping back. And yet, despite his panicking, she doubted. He knew of her father, how terrified she was of him, so he could be lying. Keeping in mind that Syrelle wasn't the greatest liar, and that amateur liars tend to feel nervous when they attempt to be deceptive, she felt for his emotions, trying to gauge what he was feeling. She winced at the overload of emotions that flooded through her the instant she tried. Terror and fear, but not nervousness.

He was telling the truth. She wasn't sure how she should feel about that; meaning, whether she should feel relieved that he wasn't lying, or horrified that he was telling the truth. Instead, she opted for neutrality. With a face full of calm and composure, she looked up, and glanced into the one-way mirror, giving a barely perceptible nod to indicate that she was done with her interrogation. She didn't wait for any signal that her request had been acknowledged and accepted before she walked forward and towards the door, sending one last baleful glare in Syrelle's direction. She could honestly say she didn't care about what happened to the man now that she had extracted the right information from him. The thought didn't even cross her mind, in fact. She just yanked the door open and stepped inside the room, only to be greeted with silence.

She ignored them, them and her silence, and strolled right over to Selene. Bruce backed off immediately without a word, and joined the rest of the Avengers, who stood by watching her. She knelt beside her and checked her daughter's condition, noting the blood that had been dripping from her nose was now drying, and that she looked more coherent than she had earlier. Which didn't make sense, considering both Natasha's interrogation and her own hadn't gone on for that long.

"What's the status on the engine repair?" she demanded, tilting Selene's head this way and that, inspecting her for further injury. No one answered her. Irritated, she huffed and stood up, whirling on them.

"What?" she snapped, hands on her hips, glaring daggers at them. She knew that this wasn't her position, that she shouldn't be doing this, but she was too exasperated to care. Again, no one answered her.

"Well?"

Bruce cleared his throat and took a step forward, and her gaze swerved to him. He seemed to falter a bit at her stare, but managed to keep courage and said soothingly, "Hope, you need calm down."

A snort sounded from behind her, and she turned her head to look at her.

"Yeah, Hope, stop going all mother bear on me, please," she said, hoping to relieve some of the tension in the room. It had mixed results-Hope rolled her eyes, and had managed to relieve some stress in her shoulders by the time she turned around to look at her friends again, but they were all looking at her, wide-eyed and incredulous.

"What?"

Natasha was the only one to step forward, the only one brave enough to do so. Hope's eyes snapped to her as Natasha stated, "Your father ordered the attack on us."

It wasn't a question but she answered anyway. "Yes."

"He knew where you were and wanted to get you back by any means necessary."

"Not quite, but you're close."

"Oh?"

Hope didn't like what her friend's tone implied, but she wanted to be diplomatic about the whole thing. She didn't reply in anger; rather, she explained.

"He'd like for me to be under his watchful eyes once more, but he wouldn't waste supplies or men like he did here if that was all he wanted to do. This was an attempt to exact revenge, not a recovery attempt."

"And you know this how?" Natasha pressed. Hope smiled wistfully.

"I lived with him for sixteen years, watched as the death of my mother warped and twisted his heart and mind until there was only a shriveled up mess left. I know how he thinks."

"Sure you do," Natasha drawled, and Hope couldn't really blame her for the sudden mistrust in her gaze. She didn't reply to her, however. Instead, she turned to Selene and asked kindly, "Are you well enough to block a phone call for me?"

"Is the sky blue? Do pigs _not_ fly? Can Erica not burn our food to save her soul? What kind of question is that? Of course I'm up for it. You just gotta give me a second to prepare."

She stood up, using the walls for support. "Who are you calling?"

Hope, eyes twinkling, responded, "Who do you think?"

Selene's eyes widened, and she began jumping up and down excitedly despite having been in agonizing pain only mere minutes ago. "Yes! I get to go yell at people!"

She sprinted out of the door, yelling something indiscernible, and Hope chuckled.

"Where's she going?" Tony asked, all of them putting back the previous tension in the room to the back of their minds for the moment. Hope shrugged

"To find a usable phone. We have some recruiting to do."

* * *

It hadn't taken them too long to find a salvageable phone, in the offices where little to no havoc had been wreaked. From there, Selene had gone to work, making sure no undesirables could trace the call. The Avengers all crowded around her, listening on speaker-phone as Hope made the call. Rose had answered answered immediately.

"Oh, you're back? Thank God-we were all beginning to worry about Selene's plan failing miserably," Rose said, exhaling in relief. Hope snickered while Selene huffed.

"You told me it would work!" she yelled, outraged at her "betrayal."

"Well I lied."

Selene shook her head in mock-disappointment. "That'll teach me to trust the likes of you."

Rose made an impatient noise in the back of her throat. "Go away, midget. I would like to talk to Hope."

Selene sputtered but obediently went silent, grumbling obscenities under her breath and backing away. Hope giggled.

"She's gone. Upset, but gone. Now, what did you wish to speak to me about?"

"Oh, nothing really," Rose began, feigning nonchalance. "It's just, you know, Erica seems determined to set the house on fire. Our fire extinguisher's practically empty now. "

Hope paled, all humor leaving her. "What happened?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just had a SHIELD agent tailing her, and you know how she is about them."

Hoped hummed in agreement. "Yes, I know."

Then the realization hit her that perhaps it wasn't who she thought it was, and she quickly demanded, "SHIELD is tailing you? Are you sure it was SHIELD?"

A pause, then "Yes...Or at least, I think so. Hold on."

Hope waited for her to reply, but she didn't. She was about to say something when she overheard shuffling that was quickly followed by gunfire on the other end, and she managed to make out the distant sound of Rose shouting, "move, move, move!"

There wasn't that much time for her to panic, for the same shuffling noise came back, and after a nerve-racking wait, she spoke once more.

"Don't go anywhere. We'll come to you," Rose stated, voice soft, panting and sounding like she was running and had been for quite some time. Before she could ask how she knew precisely where to go, or how she was going to get to the Helicarrier when none of them could fly, the line went dead, and the whole team stilled. Finally, after a long stretch of time, Selene turned to Hope.

"Do we wait?"

Hope nodded. "We wait."

"Wait and do what?" Tony asked, rather unhelpfully. They all shot him annoyed looks.

"What? I'm not going to just sit here and do nothing while we wait forever," he defended. Hope inclined her head, obliging him, and said, "No, we don't expect that of you, Tony."

Tony rolled his eyes. He crossed his arms against his chest and demanded, "How long will it take for them to get here?"

Hope shrugged, but it was Selene who answered. "We haven't the foggiest."

"Oh, _real_ helpful."

"I aim to please."

He didn't reply. In fact, several tense minutes passed were no one spoke a word to each other. Or rather, no one spoke a word to Hope and Selene; they spoke amongst themselves, but pointedly ignored them. Hope didn't think they hated her, or were distrustful of her now since she neglected to tell them her father was a high-ranking Hydra operative, but really, from the stories she had told them, they should have known better. She figured it was more of a loss of pride than anything else, licking their wounds for having been caught unawares. Either that, or it was sympathy to what had happened to Selene and her other girls. She wasn't really sure, and she hated tapping into her empath ability consciously, so she simply shrugged off the issue and hoped it wasn't a loss of trust between them.

"Mother."

Everyone jumped at the unexpected voice and whirled, though a smile broke out on the faces of Hope and Selene when they saw who it was. The rest of them relaxed also, recognizing the voice from the phone call, though they did tense at the image of more people behind Rose. They all took the moment to study her. She was blond, and tall, with a bright smile that lit up the room and light purple eyes. Rose cast them a glance, but stepped forward regardless of how she felt about them, and Hope embraced her.

"Thank goodness you're all alright," Hope said, pushing her gently out of the hug and holding her at arm's length away from her, inspecting her for injury despite her earlier words. Rose laughed, and assured her, "I'm fine, Mother."

Hope looked unconvinced, but she nodded nonetheless. She did a head-count in her mind, a feeling of satisfaction settling within her when she noted it was precisely the number she had hoped it was. Well, with one extra person. She inclined her head in Jacob's direction, thanking him for his help in transporting her family there. He nodded once, then left before Selene (or anyone else, for that matter) could even notice he was there.

A lithe form stepped forward, and though she stumbled a little, righted herself immediately. Her hands shot out and reached for Rose's arm. Rose clutched the hand and guided the girl forward. She resembled Hope a little, with the same hair color and height, but she wore sunglasses, so you couldn't really what color her eyes were

It also didn't take someone of Tony's IQ or higher to know that she was blind.

"I was so worried," she breathed out, and a few tears made a trail down her cheek. Hope smiled sadly and engulfed the girl into a bear hug. She didn't bother checking her for injuries-the others would have protected Grace no matter what, and even then, she was too good to ever get injured.

"The rumors say that you've missed me," Hope announced, and Grace let out a choked laugh.

"Of course I missed you," she replied, then burst into sobs. Hope let her cry into her shirt and stroked her hair, murmuring words in her native tongue into her ear as quietly as she could. Out of all of her girls, Grace was the closest to her. They had been together the longest, and she had come into her protection when she was still a preteen, unlike the others who had all entered her family when they were at least sixteen. For all of the days she'd known them all, it had broken her heart to know that they had hated heir lives so much, that everyone had hated them as much as they did, that they felt like they had no choice but to run away.

She stayed with the crying girl until she felt the pit of sadness leave her, and her tears had subsided. When all she could sense from the girl was mortification for having cried in front of the others, and a deep feeling of relief for being reunited with Hope again, she moved on to her other girls, though she still kept a wary eye on her.

Her attention zoomed to Erica, the only tall, redheaded and blue-eyed girl in the group who was currently eyeing her surroundings with obvious distaste. They caught each other's eye.

"I've been told your temper has not been in check lately," Hope told her. Erica shrugged, looking indifferent, though both knew she felt otherwise.

"And I was informed you joined the team with questionable morals. So I guess we're both disappointed in each other."

Tony whistled. "Well someone certainly holds us in high regard."

Erica's eyes shifted to him briefly, silently studying him before she looked away, dismissing him. "If you all acted the way a real hero should than I would be your number one fan."

"Oh," Tony began, bristling at the insult. "And what do real heros act like?"

Erica shrugged again. "Oh, you know, a lack of arrogance, genuinely caring about the people you swear to protect, less destruction left in your wake. That sort of thing."

Steve snickered. "The second Tony stops being arrogant is the second the world stops spinning."

Tony sputtered in mock-outrage.

"I'm offended," he stated. The man out of time rolled his eyes.

"But it's true."

"Doesn't mater, Cap. I'm still offended. Your words hurt me. Please apologize."

Hope chuckled at their antics. Through her peripheral vision she saw that Erica had noticed the blood drying underneath, and saw the surprise in her eyes as she stared. While she knew the girls weren't particularly close, they weren't exactly mortal enemies either, and with Erica's short fuse, she knew something would go wrong. She started forward, ready to stop her, but found that she was too late, as Erica's surprised expression had morphed into anger, and she had already burst into flame.

"What happened?" she demanded, reaching out a hand to inspect Selene further, only to realize to her embarrassment that she was on fire, and that touching someone was not really the best idea at the moment, so she hastily pulled away. The Avengers could only stare at her. They'd been forewarned she could do this, of course, but to see it versus simply hearing of it was another thing entirely.

"When are you going to knock it off? You've been doing this all week!" Selene exclaimed, raising her hand as though to strike her, then dropped her arm, knowing that to slap someone who was on fire would not end very well for her.

"Well excuse me! I can't help that I have a hot-temper!"

Selene stared at her for a second before she burst into laughter. A look of confusion graced Erica's face until she figured out what exactly she was laughing at. She blushed furiously, and the fire shrouding her flared and burned even hotter, though she pretended not to notice.

"Oh my God, will you let that go. Yes, I get it and can appreciate the pun, but for the love of all that is holy will you please drop it," she said, and the flames subsided a little.

"For a former Catholic you sure use the lord's name in vain a lot."

Erica sighed and placed her face into her hands, an air of defeat filling her. "Remind me again why I care for your well-being."

Selene tapped a finger to her chin, thinking. "Um, because we've been stuck together for the last decade and if we didn't learn to tolerate each other than Hope would've put us in time out."

"Ah," she said, and the flames completely went out. "That seems right."

"Of course it does. I said it, after all."

"Don't push it, Sel. Just because the air around me is no longer 2,012 degrees Fahrenheit doesn't mean it will stay that way."

"Oo, way to get all scientific on me. I feel so threatened."

Erica scoffed and stalked away, the tiniest of flames visible in her hair as she stormed off, though where she could go in an unfamiliar place with people she utterly despised was anyone's guess.

They all watched her go.

"Does she do that a lot?" Tony inquired, making wild and obscene gestures with his hands. Hope pondered the question for a moment before she shrugged.

"It was a daily occurrence when I first took her under my wing, but gradually it lessened. However, the way the past months have gone haven't exactly been in her favor."

"That makes sense," he agreed, nodding.

"So what's the plan?" Steve asked. When they all gave him blank looks, he sighed and elaborated.

"From what you've said, and from my experience, I can tell your father isn't going to let things go," he told her, and she flinched.

"Bringing us to the need of a plan of some sort. So what should we do?" he finished. No one answered him.

"You know him better then anyone," he said, turning to Hope. This time, she tried her best not to wince, and thought for the most part that she had succeeded when she stared back at him and found no pity in his expression.

"I do. It's been years, but what happened here makes it clear to me that he hasn't changed in the slightest. I have something akin to an idea, but..."

Here, she stopped, and bit her lip, suddenly unsure, but the hopeful look in Steve's eyes beckoned her to continue, so she did.

"But my idea would mean that you and my girls would have to shake hands and make nice, which is something I doubt will happen, based on distrust on both sides of the spectrum."

When no one said anything in reply, she took it the chance to continue even further. "Now, normally with something like this, it would be only my girls and myself. However-"

"He made this personal by attacking us here, so don't even try to leave us behind," Natasha spat, taking a step forward, her eyes flashing with fury briefly, and Hope smiled in her direction.

"The thought hadn't even crossed my mind," she told her honestly, and Natasha nodded and took a step back, satisfied. She glanced over in her the direction of her girls, noting with glee that Erica had rejoined their ranks, and informed them, "The plan will involve all of us, SHIELD and Avengers included. Is that alright with you?"

A muttered debate took place between them, and Hope stood by and waited it out, her heart nearly leaping out of her chest. She was so, so afraid they would say no, and that they would leave her again. It was true that she had grown close to the Avengers, but no one could take the place of her daughters in her heart. It seemed to be a silly notion, thankfully, as Rose turned to her and, beaming, announced, "We will stay and abide by your rules."

Hope nodded, relief flooding through her bones, though a sense of dread overpowered it just as quickly as it had come. This meant war. She could lose some of her loved ones in it. But they had been the instigator, and if it was a fight they wanted, then it was a fight they would get.

"So here's what we'll do..."

* * *

Hope and Bruce were in the cafeteria room sitting beside each other (since there was no other place to sit down but in their rooms, and frankly, they wanted to be more available than that should anything go wrong), which thankfully suffered little to no damage, and they were reading. The whereabouts of the others were unknown to them, lost in their books as they were. Hope had finally decided to read Lord of the Rings. She'd made a decent dent into the book since the coffee house, but with what had been going on lately, she had forgotten all about it, until she had gone to her room and had spotted it, lying on her dresser, her place marked with a plain old purple book mark.

Meeting up with Bruce in the cafeteria had been pure coincidence, but neither person really minded. And so, here they were, reading. Until Bruce interrupted the room's silence and spoke.

"That was pretty intense," Bruce whispered, and Hope ripped herself out of the world of books and stole a glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He was holding a book in his hands, some science book with a topic she couldn't even begin to comprehend no matter how much she tried. His grip on said book was a little tighter than usual, but she couldn't really blame him, seeing as tremendous amounts of stress and worry had been placed on all of them. They were all in danger now, which wasn't much of a surprise seeing as the Avengers and members of SHIELD were always in danger, but it had all been made worse when Hope had admitted that her father likely had his hands on some people like her and her girls. That is, to say, people with powers and abilities.

She eyed him, the tension and unease in his form, and instantly felt guilty.

This was all her fault. If she had stayed away, if she had refused, if she had done _something_ , then they wouldn't have been dragged into this mess.

"I'm sorry," she blurted without thinking, and promptly regretted it when he started a bit and let his firm grip on the book become lax as he gazed at her, concern hidden in his chocolate brown eyes. She tried her best to stop it, but her emotions on the subject soon flooded out.

"This is all my fault. If I hadn't run away-if I had just stayed there-none of this would've happened," she stated, and she pushed her book away, suddenly no longer interested in reading as hate and disgust for herself burrowed its way into her chest. Bruce's book now completely forgotten, he leaned towards her and placed a consoling hand on her arm.

"It's not your fault," he said, and she shook her head, making a move to get up and leave, but his iron-like grip stopped her and forced her to stay. She didn't bother to struggle knowing it was pointless, and so she sat back down.

"It isn't anyone's fault but his own for treating his own daughter as poorly as he did," he insisted, and Hope nearly chuckled despite herself. _Oh if only you knew_...she thought, but kept her musing to herself.

He took both of her hands into his, and, locking gazes with her, reiterated, "It is not your fault, so don't even think about it."

She was surprised to hear such firmness, such steel, in his voice, and a peek into his emotions showed a flicker of agitation coupled with sorrow, a sadness for her and her words. They stared into one another's eyes for a few moments before Hope's nerve broke and she looked away, a blush forming on her cheeks that she hoped he didn't notice.

Their moment was broken, however, when the door swung opened loudly and the Avengers and her girls stepped in. Bruce quickly let go of her hands and righted himself, but she could tell by the looks exchanged between them that the others had noticed, though they didn't mention it. Hope fought to keep a blush off of her face as Tony announced, pointing a finger at her, "The higher-ups like your plan and have given the go ahead."

When she said nothing, he added, "So, uh, you can go ahead and celebrate, if you want."

Silence. Tony whistled, that whistle that people make when awkwardness was setting in.

"Well then," was all he said, but Hope couldn't take it anymore. She shot out of her seat and bolted out of the doors, feeling concerned eyes following her, but she paid them no heed and ran as fast as she could towards her room.

A war wasn't really something she felt like she should be celebrating, after all. Especially since it was her own doing.

The others exchanged perturbed glances, and without even needing to confer with one another, Grace and Natasha (who had formed an unlikely friendship in the short time they had known each other) stole out of the room and went after Hope. Bruce wanted to go after her, too, but he figured Natasha and Grace would do a better job at helping her then he could.

The others slowly trickled out until it was only Tony and Bruce left.

"So...see something you like?"

Bruce simply glared at him before he too, walked out of the room, leaving Tony all alone.

"Oh well. I wonder if I can get my hands on some scotch..."

* * *

 _There it is. A Bruce and Hope moment, small as it is, as promised. I was smiling like a giddy idiot the whole way through as I typed it because it had to be the most cutest moment I've ever written (which is rather sad, now that I think about it)._

 _I know the whole "some science book" thing was a bit of a cop out, but from what I've read, his area of study is something that completely goes over my head, so I didn't bother trying. Still a cop out, I know, but I figured Hope wouldn't really know much about it, either. The basics, maybe, but nothing on Dr. Banner's level._

 _Also, despite what it may sound like, there will be no Wanda and Pietro (at least not in the first story, ***wink, wink*** ). Just more OCs. I can practically feel the excitement seeping through my computer screen (note the sarcasm)._

 _The '_ _2,012 degrees Fahrenheit' thing is something I looked up. It's the temperature of a bonfire, which is why I used it. If you guys think there's a better number I could've used, let me know._

 _But anyway, thanks for reading, and please, please, please leave me a review. I would love to hear what you guys think and whether or not I should continue or scrap this story._

 _Have a great rest of your day/night!_


End file.
